Rebirth: The Oracle

Backstory

2012-06-12T12:55:00.000-07:00

So after about four years of writing predominantly fanfics during college I finally got back into the game in 2000. I decided that I wanted to rewrite "First Contact" to make it new and improved and possibly better written. One of the first things you might notice is the epic prologue here and the first chapters that detail all the stuff that happened before the good guys got to the colony world of "First Contact."

The basic plot is the same: a group of humans show up at a planet outside the solar system for a colonizing expedition. Then they're attacked by aliens called the S'Parnians who want to harness their life force for food. Mayhem ensues.

Please enjoy "Rebirth: The Oracle"

Epilogue

2007-06-12T13:12:00.002-07:00

Epilogue

The Rygan shuttle set down on the icy cliff next to the ExoArmors transport, Davis emerging from his ExoArmor to meet Rosaro and the other Fifth Platoon members as they dismounted from the shuttle. “I thought you were all dead!” Davis shouted.

“We almost were,” Cromwell replied happily, nearly crushing Davis in a grateful bearhug. Rosaro was silent, staring out at the ocean sadly.

“So what do we do now?” Thornton asked Shaw.

“From what the shuttle’s sensors have shown, the S’Parnians have left orbit, but we can’t tell where they’re going,” Shaw replied.

“They are heading to Earth to wage war on your entire population,” S’Tallen said quietly.

“How do you know that?” Laurants demanded to know.

S’Tallen motioned to Klein, who was leaning unsteadily against the side of the shuttle. “He gave us the location of Earth, there is no doubt that is where S’Olonny will go.”

Rosaro turned, her entire body trembling with rage. Before any of the others could react, she grabbed Klein and held him over the cliff. “You traitor!” She spat.

“I’m sorry,” Klein wheezed. “They…tortured me!”

“Lieutenant, let him go!” Shaw commanded. “He will atone for what he did later. Right now, we need a helmsman if we’re going to get out of here!”

Rosaro’s grip tightened on Klein, for a moment he thought she was going to hurl him to the ground below, but then she set him back on the ground. “Betray us again and I will kill you,” Rosaro hissed. Klein scurried away from Rosaro, cowering next to Laurants by the shuttle.

“How are we going to get to Earth? We can’t make the trip in this tiny thing,” Thornton motioned to the shuttle.

“Don’t worry, the mother ship is close by. We can leave the ExoArmors and retrieve them later. We’d better get going now, though, it will take a little time to get all of the ship’s systems activated.” Everyone began to file back into the shuttle, Rosaro waiting at the end of the line, pulling Shaw aside.

“Captain, I’m sorry what happened before,” Rosaro began.

Shaw raised an eyebrow, asking, “What do you mean?”

Rosaro, flustered by the question, floundered, “Well, um, when I let you and Ensign Laurants separate...” Her voice trailed off, an awkward silence prevailing when Rosaro saw the look of confusion on Shaw’s face. Laurants jumped out of the shuttle, taking Rosaro aside. “What’s wrong with her?” Rosaro asked.

“There were some…problems, she’s had some short term memory loss. I’m afraid she doesn’t remember anything that happened on the surface,” Laurants explained.

“I see. I just wanted to apologize for letting you two go off on your own. It was an error in judgment on my part.”

“It’s all right, Lieutenant. You were just following your orders.” Rosaro nodded, brushing silently past Shaw as Rosaro boarded the shuttle.

“What was that about?” Shaw asked.

“I’ll explain later,” Laurants answered, following her into the shuttle. Shaw took the controls again, flying through the mountain range to a hidden entrance in the side of one of the mountains. The Rygan ship was plunged in darkness as it wound through various passages, finally emerging in the cavern where the Avenger waited.

“That is the ship?” Thornton asked in awe.

“That’s the Avenger, built by an extinct alien race called the Rygans that used to inhabit this planet,” Shaw explained, hovering near the ship to allow everyone to take a look.

“It’s beautiful,” Davis breathed. “But will we actually be able to fly it?”

“Don’t worry, it’s already taken care of,” Shaw answered cryptically as she took the shuttle into the Avenger’s hangar. “Ensign Laurants will provide you all with maps of the ship, I’ll expect everyone to take the same positions on the Avenger that they did on the Explorer, although there may be some slight alterations in your duties.”

Rosaro looked to the back of the shuttle, where Veranda, S’Amleng, and S’Tallen were seated. “Captain, I think there are a few things we need to discuss first.”

***

“You did what?” Shaw shouted, slamming S’Tallen against the wall of a former Rygan crewer’s quarters.

“I had to, it is the only hope for S’Parni!” S’Tallen squealed.

“How dare you experiment on my first officer!” Shaw shoved S’Tallen into the wall once again. “She’s my best friend, you son of a bitch!”

Rosaro pulled Shaw away, asking S’Tallen, “Is there any way you can make her fully human again?”

S’Tallen shook his head. “It is impossible. Her genes are no longer human or S’Parnian, they are a hybrid of the two, there is no way to separate one from the other.”

“You said that she has no idea who she is?” Shaw asked Rosaro.

“No, she’s lost all of her memories.” Shaw shifted nervously, thinking of her own unexplained memory loss.

“I guess we can’t use her on the bridge then,” Shaw sighed. “What about S’Amleng?”

Davis, who had remained quiet until now, answered, “Sam wants to join the Fifth. He’s been trained as a foot soldier, I’m sure it won’t be too much of an adjustment.”

“Do you agree with this?” Shaw asked Rosaro.

“If Sergeant Davis says he won’t be a problem, then I’ll take him. Sam has already proved his loyalty, I don’t think my troops will have hassle him too much.”

Shaw nodded, turning to S’Tallen. “Now, what about you?”

“Throw him out an airlock when we get into orbit,” Davis snarled.

Shaw shook her head tiredly. “Unfortunately, we’re going to need someone to oversee the engine room. Once you’re familiar with the Rygan technology there, I’m sure you can help us there.”

S’Tallen made a short bow. “Of course, Captain. I will do whatever you require of me.”

Shaw pushed S’Tallen back into the wall. “I doubt the captain of your last ship trusted you any more than I do. I’ll keep my eye on you, and if you so much as breath on Arsa again, I’ll let Lieutenant Rosaro gut you like the worm you are.”

S’Tallen nervously scurried out of the room, Rosaro and Davis following him. Shaw turned on a compad, saying into it, “Ensign Laurants, I need to see you.”

Laurants nervously stepped into the room, wondering what Shaw needed to see him for. Maybe she’s remembered something, he hoped, but doubted it. Shaw motioned for him to take a seat, sitting across from him in an oversized Rygan chair. “In talking with Lieutenant Rosaro and S’Tallen, it’s clear that Commander Veranda will be unable to assume her duties. I can’t order this, but…I want you to be my first officer.”

Laurants was shocked, stammering, “Me? Captain, I’m…I’m honored, but I’m only twenty-three, you need someone with more experience!”

“No one was ready for what happened here, but we all have to pitch in and share responsibilities.” Shaw stopped, her face turning dark. “All of the ranking officers are dead, it’s between you and Ensign Thornton and I think you are better suited to the job.”

Laurants was quiet for a long moment, thinking back to when he had graduated the Academy. Back then he had thought he would be sent to some remote place to quietly finish his tour of duty, but here he was now, asked to serve as first officer for a ship more advanced than anything ever built by humans. He remembered what Shaw had told him in the city of Telle, about why she had chosen him for the mission. Even before they had fallen in love, she had great faith in him, in what he could become. Now, he knew, was the time to prove to her that she had been right about him all along. He nodded slowly, “I’ll do it.”

Shaw smiled wearily. “Good. As of now, I’m exercising my right as an Alliance captain to give you a field promotion to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. As your first official duty, I want you to make sure everyone has quarters before we blast off.” Shaw stood up, saluting Laurants. “Congratulations, Lieutenant Commander Laurants.”

Laurants returned her salute in shock, not sure of what to say. “Thank-you, sir.” He stumbled out of the room, feeling a mixture of things. He still felt sadness for the loss of his relationship with Shaw, he felt joy at his promotion, and he felt anxiety about whether he was ready to handle the responsibilities of command. Maybe, he thought, maybe this is what I need to get close to her again.

***

It took two weeks of constant work and drilling before the crew of the Avenger was ready to lift off. In that time, everyone had been assigned a role and instructed in how to use the advanced equipment of the Avenger. The crew had also grown accumstomed to the Rygan food rations aboard the ship, which still tasted bad despite the Rygans’ technological abilities. Now it was time to get the Avenger under way to pursue the S’Parnian collection vessel.

The bridge of the Avenger, unlike that of the Explorer, was arranged in an X-shape in a single room. The helm and navigation stations were in the front of the bridge, the offensive and defensive operations terminals were in the rear, with the command chair in the center. Klein, despite his forced cooperation with the S’Parnians, was allowed to take the helm while Laurants took defensive operations and Thornton manned the offensive operations station. The navigation terminal was empty, the controls routed to Klein’s console.

Shaw came onto the bridge, sinking down into the large, comfortable command chair. She silently typed something into the computer display to her right, the Avenger shaking as its engines came to life. “The Rygans programmed a very specific course to get to the surface, no one is to touch anything until I say so,” Shaw commanded. The bridge crew slid back in their chairs so they would not accidentally disturb the process.

The front of the bridge, which until now had been a blank silver wall, suddenly turned clear, similar to the windows in the city of Telle. The crew was able to watch as the Avenger made its way out of the cavern, into an enormous dark passage that wound its way to the surface. A tiny island in the middle of the ocean near the planet’s northeastern continent suddenly dissapeared as the Avenger emerged, its engines glowing red while atmospheric thrusters pushed the ship up through the gray sky.

The sleek Rygan ship hardly vibrated as it clawed its way through the atmosphere and into space. The Avenger’s engines turned blue, the main engines coming on line to take the ship away from the planet. Once it had cleared the planet’s moon, the Avenger came to a complete stop. “Ensign Klein, set course for Earth and take us into hyperspace,” Shaw commanded.

Klein nodded, his fingers gingerly touching the computer displays in front of him, knowing that once he finished, the ship would begin to take him back to face the aliens who had tormented him. Thornton turned away from the planet, thinking of all that had happened to her on the planet. She thought of Ramirez dying in her arms, Flanders sacrificing himself so that she could escape, S’Amleng risking his own life to save her. She had come to Rygan as a starry-eyed girl, seeking an adventure, but she was leaving the planet as a mature woman, changed by the horrors of war. Laurants gazed longingly at the planet, then at Shaw, thinking of the love he had found on the Rygan world. He had thought coming to Rygan was a punishment, a curse, but it had led him to the greatest joy in his life, a joy that now had been taken from him. The woman he loved, who had loved him, now seemed like a stranger. Shaw took a last look at the Rygan planet, silently thanking the Rygans for leaving the Avenger for the humans. It may be our only chance to stop the S’Parnians before they wipe Earth out, she thought, then the brown planet vanished in a burst of blue light as the Avenger went into hyperspace. I just hope we aren’t too late.

Chapter Ten

2007-06-12T13:12:00.001-07:00

Chapter Ten

Klein awoke, the smell of rotting flesh filling his nostrils. The door to the room opened, the two aliens who had interrogated him earlier entering the room. The small one spoke, “I trust your night was unpleasant. You will now tell us where your planet is, or you may join your friend.”

Sweat beaded on Klein’s forehead as he stared at Sanders’ cold, stiff corpse. Blood had dried on the floor all around her, a trickle of it crusted onto Klein’s boots. A drop of sweat dripped into Klein’s eyes, he blinked it out, feeling the alien eyes watching him, filled with unimaginable hatred. “No, I can’t. I can’t sell out my entire planet!” Klein shouted, a note of pleading in his voice. “Please, understand, I can’t! I can’t do it!”

S’Tallen leaned forward, whispering conspiratorially, motioning to S’Olonny, who stood as rigid as a statue, fury in his eyes. “Do you think you will be the last? We have at least twenty of your fellows in custody, he will kill each and every one until he finds what he wants to know. He will not stop because he enjoys killing, because he lusts for blood. Your leader we captured, you remember her?”

Klein thought of Rosaro and nodded his head. S’Tallen continued, “He butchered her, bathing in her blood as he cut her into tiny pieces.” S’Tallen stopped, letting the image soak into Klein’s brain. “If you do not talk, he will do the same to you.”

Tears came to Klein’s eyes as he whined, “I can’t tell you! If I could, I would, but I can’t!”

S’Tallen’s reptilian mouth imitated a smile as he whispered, “I know that you think this will save your planet, but it will not. A deep space probe led us here, and right now there are dozens of the same probes scouring space for any signs of life. It is only a matter of time before one of those probes finds your world; you are only sacrificing your life needlessly. You can tell us what we will find out eventually, or…” S’Tallen paused dramatically, gesturing to Sanders’ corpse. “Or you can end up like her.”

Klein looked over at Sanders then up at S’Olonny. There was a long moment of silence, Klein’s mind racing. He saw the sword at S’Olonny’s hip, its naked blade covered in blood. Rosaro’s blood, Klein thought. She was probably the toughest one of us, and the alien bastard slaughtered her like a hog. He had cut Sanders open without even thinking, just sliced her open and let her bleed to death. That’s not how I go, it can’t be how I go!

“Have you made your decision?” S’Tallen asked, loud enough for S’Olonny to hear.

Klein nodded slowly. “Yes. I…I’ll need a star chart.”

S’Tallen clapped his hands together happily while S’Olonny grunted in disappointment. “Excellent. Our ship’s navigator will be here soon.” S’Tallen called for the guards outside the door, pointing a clawed finger to Sanders. “Dispose of that and show Lieutenant S’Quivay in.” Klein turned away as Sanders was hauled out of the room, too ashamed to face her cold gaze.

S’Olonny met with S’Tallen outside of the room. “Well done, S’Tallen, your gift for deception has finally paid dividends.”

S’Tallen snorted at the remark, “He was already out of his mind, it was easy enough to manipulate him. I must congratulate you on your performance, he would rather allow his race to die out than to make you angry with him.”

“There was no performance,” S’Olonny snarled. “I would have gutted him and every last of his kind. These dishonorable scum, I will make certain that their stink is wiped from the face of the universe.”

Before S’Tallen could reply, his communicator beeped. “What is it?” He hissed, seeing that one of his guards was on the other end.

“Director, your experiment is beginning to regain consciousness.”

S’Tallen’s eyes lit up from the thought that he would soon realize his dream. “I will be right there.” He looked up at S’Olonny, trying to keep the joy from his voice. “I have to go tend to an experiment.”

S’Olonny growled, “I need you here, to translate that maggot’s words to Lieutenant S’Quivay.”

S’Tallen tossed a small device to one of the guards standing by the door. “Tell S’Quivay to use that so he can know what the beast is saying. He does not need to have a lengthy discussion, just have the prisoner point to some spot on a map.” S’Tallen brushed by S’Olonny quickly, walking as briskly as his legs could carry him. At last, the time had come.

***

S’Revlar crouched in the darkness, waiting for his prey to arrive. The S’Parnian scout was hiding on the balcony of a conical building overlooking the energy fountain in the center of the city. The fountain projected colorful waves of energy high into the air, an effect that would dazzle most people, but to S’Revlar it was a weapon to use against his enemy. Lying at the base of the fountain was a device transmitting S’Revlar’s bio-readings to draw his prey to the fountain.

It had been two hours of waiting, but S’Revlar knew that his plan would work. As if on cue, he saw Laurants cautiously near the fountain, searching the area for some sign of the S’Parnian scout. Laurants studied the fountain for a moment, finding the tiny cube S’Revlar had placed there to broadcast a phony lifesign reading.

Steadying himself on the edge of the balcony with his tail, S’Revlar sprang from the balcony like a cat, crashing into Laurants before the ensign could even see the attack coming. Laurants’s rifle flew from his hands into the fountain, obscured by geysers of energy. Both human and S’Parnian lay on the ground dazed for a moment, S’Revlar recovering first. Laurants was rolling over to his side when S’Revlar kicked him squarely in the midsection, the S’Parnian’s clawed feet puncturing Laurants’s flesh, though not deep enough to cause serious injury.

Laurants collapsed onto his back in pain, S’Revlar taking out his knife to finish the job. S’Revlar squatted on top of Laurants, the knife plunging down towards the young ensign’s stomach. Laurants threw up his hands, grunting as he struggled with S’Revlar to keep the knife at bay. Looking about him for some sign of a weapon, he saw Shaw standing to one side of the fountain, the lights casting a shadow over her face. “Lisa!” He called out, but she seemed not to hear him. “Lisa!” He shouted again.

Laurants could feel the knife point grazing his clothes, S’Revlar snarling as he attempted to drive the weapon home. Still looking at Shaw’s apparition, Laurants’s eyes narrowed, his jaw clenched, every muscle in his body tightening. Ever so slowly, the knife’s point began to move away from Laurants, the human finally twisting the weapon around in the S’Parnian’s grip. With one last heave, Laurants forced the knife into S’Revlar’s throat.

S’Revlar clawed at his throat, plucking the knife out, the weapon falling to the ground, the S’Parnian’s hand stained by his own blood. Laurants delivered a vicious punch to S’Revlar’s head, toppling the alien. Kneeling beside the dying scout, Laurants took the knife, plunging it into the exact spot of S’Revlar’s chest where Shaw had been stabbed. “I hope you’re feeling the same pain that she did as she bled to death, you alien bastard.” Coming to his feet, Laurants turned towards the fountain, but Shaw was gone. A scream echoed through the empty city, but it was too distant to have come from S’Revlar. Making certain that the S’Parnian scout was dead, Laurants ran down the empty streets, searching for the source of the scream and wondering just what he had seen at the fountain.

***

There was a muffled scream as the blue gel began to drain around Arsa Veranda. S’Tallen watched his specimen slowly gain consciousness, his finest moment almost at hand. Punching a button on his console, a vacuum was created all around Veranda, sucking any remaining gel from her body. While the vacuum performed its job, S’Tallen studied his masterpiece.

Still retaining some human physical traits, S’Tallen admitted to himself that while she was his most attractive creation to date, she looked predominantly S’Parnian. The skin over Veranda’s entire body had turned dark green and scaly, a tail protruded from above her rear, her hands had only four clawed fingers while her feet had only three clawed toes, and her reptilian eyes were orange. She still resembled a human in some ways: her face retained its human bone structure, black stubble covered her scalp, and mammalian breasts protruded from her chest.

Veranda’s body suddenly pitched forward as the vacuum disengaged, but she stopped her fall with one hand. Veranda held the hand up to her face, examining the four, clawed fingers. She moved each dark green digit experimentally, as though moving it for the first time. Her orange, reptilian eyes went wide with panic as she realized that something was not right.

“What have you done to me?” She screamed in S’Parnian. She pounded against the glass, S’Tallen jumping back in fright. Slapping her tail hard against the glass, S’Tallen could see cracks forming in the tank. He shouted for his guards, but was rooted in place by fascination of his creation.

Veranda continued to smash her fists and tail against the tank, until the cracks widened. S’Tallen’s guards stepped into the room with their rifles at ready, but Veranda did not even seem to notice them. Veranda stopped for a moment, leaning against the back of the tank. It seemed for a moment that she might give up, that her rage was spent, but then she slammed her entire body into the tank, the glass shattering in a hail of tiny pieces. Veranda leapt towards S’Tallen, the scientist watching her body fly towards him, his creation poised to strike him down with her claws. Veranda was knocked to the floor at the apex of her jump by S’Tallen’s guards, who pinned the human-S’Parnian hybrid down. “I will kill you for this!” Veranda screeched, struggling to free herself to finish S’Tallen.

Slowly, the S’Parnian scientist came to his senses. He shook his head sadly, watching Veranda fight to free herself. “She is not the one,” he said quietly. He raised his voice so his guards could hear, “She is not the one, dispose of her.”

Veranda could hear the S’Parnian weapons charging, her end imminent. The guards started to pull the triggers, but never finished the motion. Veranda watched a shadow descend behind the two guards, followed by a flash of something brilliantly orange. Both S’Parnian guards pitched forward onto Veranda, their severed heads rolling to the floor.

S’Tallen took a step backward, the shadow turning towards him. “Who are you?” He asked first in S’Parnian, then in English. The shadow stepped forward into the light, revealing the human female S’Olonny had killed in the honor duel. “No! You are dead! S’Olonny told me he watched you die!”

Rosaro took another step towards S’Tallen, her orange S’Zai blade poised to strike. S’Tallen backed into a wall, looking desperately for somewhere to run, but he knew that it was hopeless. Even though he had been a scientist his entire life, S’Tallen could find no logical explanation for how Rosaro could have survived the deadly fall S’Olonny described. Rosaro came closer, S’Tallen quaking in terror at Rosaro’s black eyes filled with fury, her mouth snarling like some animal, the orange S’Zai blade in her hand coated with blood.

The point of the crystal sword grazed S’Tallen’s throat. “You did this to her?” Rosaro rasped.

“I did,” S’Tallen squeaked. “I did it to save my people…”

“Silence!” Rosaro barked. “I should kill you know for what you did to her, and the part you played in my death, but I will need you if we are to escape this ship.”

“Escape?” S’Tallen blinked unknowingly.

“You will be my hostage,” Rosaro began, twisting the sword blade slightly to make a tiny nick on S’Tallen’s neck. “And if you cross me, I will kill you. Understand?”

S’Tallen nodded, “Of course, of course.”

Rosaro lowered the sword, her entire body seeming to shiver for a moment. S’Tallen watched as Rosaro’s eyes turned back to their natural brown color, her mouth pressing into a straight line. “Stay here,” Rosaro commanded, her voice returning to normal.

Veranda slowly came to her feet, “Thank-you,” she said in English. “Who are you?”

“I’m Lieutenant Amanda Rosaro. I’ve come to rescue you. Are you Commander Arsa Veranda?”

Veranda shook her head, “I don’t know.”

Two S’Parnian soldiers stood guard at the door of the room housing the captured humans, the guards milling about leisurely, perceiving no real threat to their position. There was a noise, a slight rattle from down the corridor, one of the guards turning to see what had made the sound. Seeing nothing, the guard turned around only to find blood gushing from the neck of his comrade. The S’Parnian soldier was about to raise the alarm when he saw a flash of orange, then felt something tear into his neck. Collapsing to the deck, the guard saw a human looming over him, an orange sword in the its hands.

With what was almost a smile, Rosaro plunged the S’Zai blade into the chest of each guard, then motioned to S’Tallen. “Open the door,” Rosaro rasped. Observing the murderous gleam in Rosaro’s black eyes, S’Tallen uneasily entered the combination to open the door. Veranda was left to watch for any more guards while S’Tallen and Rosaro entered the cell.

The over twenty humans in the room jumped to their feet, seeing Rosaro enter the room. “Lieutenant!” Cromwell burst out. “We thought you were dead.”

“Come on, we don’t have much time,” Rosaro hissed.

“Is something wrong, sir? Your voice sounds different,” Flanders asked.

Rosaro snarled, her S’Zai blade touching Flanders’ neck. “Shut up and move!” Rosaro shouted. Flanders jumped back a step, his eyes widening with fear.

“Um…sure thing, Lieutenant,” Flanders stammered, helping some of the other humans to their feet.

“We are going to the nearest hangar, once the shooting starts, everyone find somewhere to hide and let me handle it,” Rosaro commanded. Some of the Fifth Platoon survivors thought to point out how suicidal Rosaro’s plan was, but looking at the sword in her hand, they thought better of it.

“Someone is coming!” Veranda shouted. Rosaro motioned for everyone to stay in the cell, poking her head out the doorway. She saw nothing, but she could sense that at least two S’Parnians were coming, a human prisoner with them.

Rosaro shut the door, the prisoners waiting nervously for what was about to happen. The suspense built for a long minute, footsteps coming closer and closer, until they stopped at last in front of the cell. Rosaro motioned for the prisoners to duck down while she stood squarely in the middle of the doorway.

Two S’Parnian warriors, carrying Klein’s limp form between them, opened the door. Before they could react, they heard a throaty growl and saw an orange blade arcing towards them. One of the guards was beheaded, the other dropped Klein to the floor, ducking down to avoid Rosaro’s sword. Scrambling to take the rifle from his back, the S’Parnian guard watched, as if in slow motion, as the orange S’Zai blade plunged through his armor and into his midsection. The guard fell backwards to the deck, firing a single shot that harmlessly struck the ceiling. Klaxons all over the ship began to sound, the highly-trained S’Parnian crew immediately stopping all other activities to rush to their battle stations.

Rosaro cursed to herself, then took the rifles from the four dead S’Parnian soldiers. She tossed the weapons to members of the Fifth Platoon, hissing, “They’re going to know we’ve escaped. We have to hurry.” The humans quickly organized into a line, Rosaro in the lead while Cromwell and Flanders took the rear. Two Explorer survivors shouldered Klein between them, dragging the unconscious alien.

“There is no chance for escape now,” S’Tallen whispered in Rosaro’s ear. “S’Olonny will have soldiers waiting for you in every hangar.”

“You have a better plan?” Rosaro asked angrily.

“No, but I thought I would warn you.”

“If we die, I’ll make sure that you die with us,” Rosaro growled. From the look in her eyes, S’Tallen knew that she was serious.

Alarm klaxons sounded across the collection vessel, S’Parnian crewers racing to battle stations. On the bridge of the ship, S’Segar called out, “Sir, the prisoners have escaped!”

“What? How?” S’Olonny demanded.

“We do not know, sir.”

S’Olonny tapped the armrest on his chair with a clawed finger, trying to think of how the prisoners could have made their escape, but he decided that line of thought could wait until later. Right now, he had to stop the fugitives from leaving the ship. “Status of the hangar bays?”

“Hangars Two through Four are unavailable with collection operations, no ships can get in or out.”

“Then order all available forces to assemble in Hangar One and prepare to repel the intruders. I will leave you in command of the bridge, I want to deal with this matter personally.” S’Segar nodded, knowing better than to question S’Olonny’s orders. Instead, S’Segar passed along the command while S’Olonny stomped from the bridge, fury in his eyes. However they managed to escape, it will not be for long, S’Olonny told himself.

After S’Olonny had gone, the sensor officer called out, “Commander, we have detected bio-energy readings on the surface!”

“Where are they coming from?” S’Segar asked, walking over to the sensor terminal. The officer pointed to a spot on the map, a location along the shore of one of the planet’s oceans. “It is them!”

“Who, sir?” The sensor officer asked.

“The aliens who slaughtered one of our patrols,” S’Segar replied, looking over to the communications station. “I want a full platoon and two escort ships dispatched to the surface immediately!”

“Two escort ships? Sir…”

“Do not question my orders! These aliens have already killed an elite scout team, they will not escape again!” The communications officer nodded, relaying the order. S’Segar sank down into S’Olonny’s command chair, wishing that he could leave his post to go to the surface. I would love to see the look on their faces as they are butchered in the same manner as that scout team, S’Segar thought almost gleefully. But I will have to settle for the knowledge that the deaths caused by their alien hands will soon be avenged.

***

Davis’ss head leaned forward so that he could wipe the sweat from his brow without losing his grip on the side of the cliff. Taking a look down, Davis could see the steel gray ocean below, large waves crashing onto the pale gray sand. Thornton and S’Amleng were standing near an outcropping of rock on the shore, waiting for Davis to survey the top of the cliff to determine if he could anchor a rope to throw down to them.

Taking a deep breath, Davis reached up to punch new holes for his climbing claws. Being so high up, with only the claws for support, made Davis feel a little nervous, but he focused on the task, creating a rhythm to his climbing. He was nearly three-quarters up the cliff, when the comm in his helmet beeped. “What is it?” Davis grunted.

“We’re picking up three ships on the sensors. Sam says that they’re two escort ships and a troop transport. I’m not sure what an escort ship is, but it doesn’t sound very pleasant. You’d better hurry,” Thornton said nervously.

“I’m going,” Davis replied, his pace quickening. He nearly plunged to his death, one set of claws failing to penetrate the rock, but he managed to hang on. Davis stopped, hearing something over the sound of his breathing and his pounding heart. He turned his head, seeing three shapes coming quickly over the horizon. “Oh shit,” Davis breathed, throwing caution to the wind as he tried to scale the remainder of the cliff.

“Hurry, Davis, they’re almost here!” Thornton shouted.

“I see them, I see them!” Davis growled irritably. “You and Sam find somewhere to hide…”

“We cannot just abandon you here,” Davis heard Sam say.

“I’m grateful,” Davis stopped, grunting as he slammed his claws home into the rock. “But there’s no sense in you two being captured.”

“They will find us anyway. Perhaps if we can delay them long enough, you will be able to locate these weapons of yours.”

Davis was only a few feet from the top, the S’Parnian ships in plain view now. He recognized the transport, but the other two ships were completely foreign to him. They had a tapered fuselage, two small wings on the side, and with their gray paint schemes they seemed like some kind of flying shark. Although he was not an expert on S’Parnian shipbuilding, Davis knew that the escort ships were packed with firepower, more than enough to blow him from the cliff.

As though they could read his thoughts, the escort ships opened fire, streams of green energy coming from cannons on the sides of each vessel. The shots hit just to the right and left of Davis, the shockwave nearly tearing from the cliff, but his claws held, a storm of debris and dust flying into his face. Davis put down the face shield of his helmet, concentrating on getting up the last few feet the cliff, where hopefully he could find some cover. The escort ships hovered in the air, their wide noses swinging to track Davis.

The human sergeant’s hand reached the top of the cliff, just as the two escort ships unleashed another volley. Helplessly watching the scene from below, Thornton could see Davis disappear in a thick cloud of dust and rock that cleared after a few moments to reveal only shattered, blackened rock where Davis had just been. The escort ships, content that their mission was accomplished, hovered down towards the shore, the troop transport coming in after them.

“Davis!” Thornton screamed, but there was no response.

“He is gone now,” S’Amleng said slowly. “We must go.”

“Stop!” A voice called out in the S’Parnian tongue, a full platoon of alien warriors rushing towards Thornton and S’Amleng. Thornton raised her rifle to make a last stand in memory of Davis, but S’Amleng snatched the weapon from her hands, training his own rifle on her.

“I have her!” S’Amleng shouted in S’Parnian.

“Who are you?” The commander of the alien warriors asked.

“Corporal S’Amleng, S’Aclav Regiment. I was taken captive by these barbarians, but now I am ready to return to duty.” S’Amleng handed both weapons to the S’Parnian soldiers, putting up his hands so that he could be searched.

“You traitor!” Thornton screamed with fury, trying to rush at S’Amleng to claw his eyes out with her bare hands, but she was roughly held in place by two S’Parnian soldiers.

“Very good, Corporal,” the S’Parnian commander said, turning to one of his subordinates. “Make certain there are no more of them.” While a dozen of the S’Parnians hurried off to check the trees nearby, Thronton stared at S’Amleng in cold hatred, waiting for the chance when she could pay him back for his betrayal.

***

Rosaro felt a chill down her spine as she and the other humans neared the hangar. “It’s a trap,” she growled to herself. Turning to S’Tallen, she demanded, “How many are there?”

S’Tallen shrugged, “How am I supposed to know?” Seeing the murderous glint in Rosaro’s eyes, S’Tallen continued, “I would expect at least a hundred, probably more.”

“Then I’ll just have to even the odds.” Rosaro motioned to Cromwell, who nervously stepped forward. “Find somewhere to hide and wait for my signal.”

“You can’t take them on by yourself, that’s suicide!” Cromwell blurted out.

“Maybe it is,” Rosaro snarled. Looking up at the ceiling, she saw an air shaft similar to the ones she had crawled through before. With any luck, it would take her right to the hangar. In one fluid motion, Rosaro leapt into the air, slicing open the vent and pulling herself in. Cromwell’s eyes went wide with shock, grabbing S’Tallen’s arm, he asked, “Where can we hide out?”

“Follow me,” S’Tallen sighed, leading the humans to the supply room he had used to take the tissue sample from S’Amleng. “They should not look in here, at least for now.”

Cromwell motioned for everyone else to pile into the room, placing the barrel of his weapon against S’Tallen’s neck. “If you betray us, I’m going to make sure that you don’t live a second longer than any of us.”

“I will not betray you, but in the end S’Olonny will hunt you down and slaughter you like your comrades.”

“We’ll see about that,” Cromwell replied, shoving S’Tallen into the dark room to wait.

Rosaro carefully removed the grate from the ventilation shaft, staring out at the massive hangar below. As she suspected, she saw dozens of S’Parnian soldiers waiting, their weapons trained on the door. Just below her, Rosaro could see a gray ship that resembled a shark in its shape. Placing her hands on the wall just below the shaft, Rosaro hurled herself from the air shaft and onto the hull of the escort ship. No one appeared to have noticed her as Rosaro made her way along the hull and down to the hatch. The escort ship’s side hatch required a handprint to open, but Rosaro’s S’Zai made short work of the door. Rosaro ducked into the cockpit, which for the most part was similar to that of a human cockpit, although the control layouts were different.

Sitting in what she assumed was the pilot’s seat, Rosaro studied the controls of the ship, finding those controls she would need to carry out her plan. Rosaro touched a red button, engines slowly whining to life. She put her hands on the steering yoke, turning it to the left, she watched as alien troops spun around in surprise. Too late, Rosaro thought, punching the triggers on the steering yoke. A pair of green laser beams lanced out of the sides of the escort ship, vaporizing a half-dozen of the startled S’Parnians.

Rosaro eased the escort ship forward, searching for more S’Parnian soldiers. She felt shots hit the sides of the escort ship, but the armored hull of the escort ship held up to the punishment. Firing another burst, Rosaro saw more S’Parnians disintegrate, then she spied a group of soldiers hoping to use a transport for cover, but Rosaro simply blasted the transport, the resulting explosion killing the S’Parnians who had sought refuge around the ship. Inspired by the flaming transport, Rosaro destroyed transports and escort ships strategically placed around the hangar. She watched from the protected cockpit of the escort ship as the hangar became an inferno. Firefighting systems activated in the hangar, putting out the flames, but it was too late for almost all of the S’Parnian soldiers.

Stepping out of the escort ship’s hatch, Rosaro surveyed the hangar. The blackened corpses of S’Parnian warriors were everywhere, a few still moaning in pain, their lives draining away slowly. Rosaro knelt down next to one soldier, taking a scorched communicator from the S’Parnian’s belt. She touched a button on the device, hoping that S’Tallen was listening. “S’Tallen?” She asked.

“I am here,” the S’Parnian scientist replied.

“I’m finished.”

“We’re on our way, Lieutenant,” Rosaro heard Cromwell say. A minute later, the doors to the hangar opened, Cromwell leading the human survivors.

“We’ll take one of those transports,” Rosaro commanded. “How can we get the hangar doors open?” She asked S’Tallen.

“I can try to access the computer controls, but I may be overridden from the bridge,” S’Tallen answered.

“Bullshit,” Rosaro replied acidly. “I’m sure you have a way around that. If I don’t see those doors open in five minutes, I will slice you open so that you can see what your innards look like.”

There was suddenly the sound of crates crashing to the deck across the hangar, Rosaro turned to see a massive shape rise up from the crates, then stride boldly towards her, a green S’Zai in its hand. Cromwell and the others aimed their weapons, but Rosaro waved them off. “He’s mine!” She hissed, taking out her own sword. She waited for S’Olonny to cross the distance between them, snarling in anticipation. S’Olonny finally reached her, there were no words exchanged, just a simple look into each other’s eyes, then their blades crashed against each other.

Cromwell watched S’Olonny and Rosaro’s duel for a moment, then shoved S’Tallen towards the transport. “You’d better get that door open.” S’Tallen nodded just as the doors to the hangar opened. Two platoons of S’Parnian warriors charged into the room, firing at the group of humans. “Take cover!” Cromwell commanded. S’Tallen, Veranda, and the humans without weapons piled into the transport, leaving the four members of the Fifth Platoon to face the alien soldiers. Ducking under a piece of service equipment, Cromwell could see Rosaro and S’Olonny still fighting, oblivious to anything else.

“What do we do now?” Flanders asked.

“We give S’Tallen time to open the door,” Cromwell replied, firing a shot that hit an alien warrior in the leg, then dove under the machine he was using for cover, wondering how they were going to get out of this.

***

Laurants’s heart pounded in his chest as he climbed the steps to the train platform. He skidded to a stop at the hatch to the train, his weapon ready for any sign of trouble. The train car was dark, Laurants just able to make out the motionless form of Lothgamm. He thought he heard something move in one of the corners, but he saw nothing. Laurants carefully made his way towards where he thought the sound had orgininated from, stopping when he heard another noise. Before he could react, something slammed into Laurants, knocking him to the ground. The ensign managed to fire a shot that hit the ceiling, then his weapon was knocked away. He and his attacker grappled for several moments before Laurants pinned the assailant to the floor. Reaching into his pocket, Laurants fumbled for some kind of light, finally taking out his compad, the computer’s screen providing just enough light to make out a familiar face.

“Lisa? I thought you were dead,” Laurants breathed, letting Shaw up.

“I thought I was dead too, then I woke up here. I saw that…thing lying next to me and I guess I panicked a little. I’m sorry if I hurt you, Ensign,” Shaw said, stepping over Lothgamm and onto the platform.

“No, I’m fine,” Laurants replied quietly, noticing Shaw’s sudden return to formality in calling him by his rank.

Shaw turned to Laurants, frowning, “So where exactly are we?”

Laurants was stunned, finally stammering, “You don’t remember?”

Shaw shook her head, rubbing her right temple with one hand. “No, the last thing I remember I was on the Explorer’s bridge. We were under attack, there was an explosion, I was thrown against a bulkhead and blacked out. How long have I been unconscious?”

Laurants thought for a moment, trying to think of how to best phrase his response. “Actually, sir, you weren’t out for very long. You were conscious when Ensign Thornton and I came onto the bridge and helped you into an escape pod. After linking up with other survivors on the surface, you and I climbed into the mountains to find the ExoArmors. We were escaping from an alien patrol when we ended up here.”

“Here? Where exactly is here?”

“It’s hard to explain, but this is an ancient city of a people called the Rygans who used to inhabit this planet. The alien lying next to you was the last Rygan alive, his name was Lothgamm.” Laurants stopped, asking, “You don’t remember any of that?”

Shaw shook her head, “No, I don’t.” Shaw stopped, reaching into her pocket to take out a tiny silver cube. “I found this on me when I woke up. It doesn’t seem to do anything, maybe you know what it is.”

Laurants took the cube from Shaw, the device suddenly changing shape as it came into contact with Laurants’s skin. The cube flattened to a rectangle, a rose-colored circle of light in the center of the rectangle. Laurants cupped the object in his hands, watching in fascination as a tiny hologram of Lothgamm appeared. “Jack, if you are seeing this holographic representation of myself, then I must be dead. What I have to tell you is personal, it should be viewed alone.”

Shaw’s eyes were wide, she finally stuttered, “I’ll be in there.” Disappearing into the train car, Laurants was left alone on the train platform, a shiver going up his spine.

Lothgamm continued, “You may notice some slight change in your friend, that is unfortunate, but it is often a side effect of what I had to do. You must understand that the memories and knowledge of the Rygan people cannot perish, or all will be lost. In order to keep that knowledge alive, I was forced to transfer it into the mind of your friend. Even in a transfer between two Rygans there can be some mental damage to the receiver, in another species the effects could be far more severe, including some memory loss. I apologize for what I had to do, but it was the only way.”

Lothgamm paused, as if letting his words sink in, then he went on, “Lisa has a great destiny ahead of her, I am already certain of this. It will be up to you, Jack, to make sure that she is allowed to fulfill her destiny. You must take her to the Avenger, so that she may lead the last Rygan ship into battle against those who would threaten the future of the universe. It will not be easy for either one of you, but your actions now will secure peace for an infinite number of lives in the future. The path to my ship, the Avenger is stored in this holosquare. Good luck, Jack.” Lothgamm’s image faded, replaced by a map of Telle. Laurants motioned for Shaw to come out of the train car, too shocked to speak.

“So what do we do now?” Shaw finally asked.

“We follow the yellow brick road,” Laurants said quietly. He stepped off of the train platform, Shaw a few steps behind. As he walked through the deserted city, Laurants felt rage building. Lothgamm had taken away the thing that mattered the most to him, the Rygan had taken Shaw from him, possibly forever. The time they had spent together, the bond that had been created between them was gone and Laurants knew that no matter what happened, that could never again be truly rebuilt.

***

Davis slowly awoke, finding himself lying on his back at the top of the cliff. He remembered that he had just reached the top as the alien ships fired, the ground beneath his feet vaporizing. Rubbing his head gingerly, Davis recalled that he had been thrown into a snow bank, hitting his head on something. He saw that he was still lying in the snow, wondering for a moment why none of the aliens had come to finish him off.

Davis stood up, looking around him, but there was nothing except snow-covered rocks and the gray expanse of the ocean stretching into infinity. He turned around, but there were only rocks and snow behind him, then he noticed something green where his body had punched through the snow. Davis knelt down, sweeping snow away to reveal an Alliance military logo. The ExoArmors! He thought gleefully, feverishly shoveling snow off of the ExoArmor transport. After a few minutes of frantic digging, Davis found an emergency hatch on the top of the transport. He pulled down the manual release lever, the hatch slowly creaking open, then slipped down into the ExoArmor transport, plunged into darkness when he reached the deck.

Davis could feel the cold, smooth surface of an ExoArmor and groped his way to the back of the unit. He searched the back of the ExoArmor with his hands, finally finding the release mechanism near the left armpit that caused the backpack of the machine to swing outward, nearly striking Davis in the head, to reveal the opening to the suit. Davis carefully ducked into the ExoArmor, putting his legs and arms through their respective holes, the limbs of the suit seemingly several sizes too large for Davis’s body. He awkwardly moved his arms up, reaching the round helmet suspended over the ExoArmor, and gently placed the helmet on top of the ExoArmor’s shoulders. There was a hissing sound as the airtight seals of the helmet closed, the limbs of the suit also adjusting to fit Davis’s body. Displays came to life in the helmet of the ExoArmor, sensor readings, topographic maps, and status reports filling Davis’s vision.

Davis took a cautious step forward, adjusting to the weight of the ExoArmor. He had run through simulations and a few practices in an actual ExoArmor, but this was the first time he would be piloting one in combat, the first time anyone would pilot one in combat. His sensors showed that the transport’s exit ramp was about fifty feet to his left, but once he made his way to the door, he found that something was pinning the ramp shut. Davis studied his weapons inventory, but he couldn’t risk using any of the weapons for fear of injuring himself or damaging the other ExoArmors.

After a moment of thought, Davis took a few steps backward, then charged at the door, his left shoulder smashing through the metal ramp. Davis lost his balance, falling through the door and landing on his back in a pile of snow. He uneasily levered himself back to his feet, turning to study the transport he discovered the reason the ramp had been held in place. The shattered remains of a boulder lay scattered about the area, yet the ExoArmor reported no damage. These things are tough, he thought. Let’s hope they’re tough enough.

Thornton looked over at S’Amleng, who was standing next to the S’Parnian commander. “How could you sell us out, Sam? I thought you said you wouldn’t go back,” She spat at S’Amleng. The young S’Parnian took a step towards her, his tongue flicking in and out of his mouth anxiously.

“I do not want to go back,” S’Amleng replied in English. “When I give the signal, I want you to dive behind those rocks.” Thornton turned her head slightly, picking up the rock formation S’Amleng indicated with a subtle flick of his tongue.

Without warning, S’Amleng slapped Thornton across the face, his claws making deep gashes in her flesh. Thornton cried out, hoping that the attack was part of whatever ruse S’Amleng had devised. Striding over to the S’Parnian commander, S’Amleng shouted in S’Parnian, “Let me execute this vermin!”

“No, it must be returned to the ship, it may have valuable information,” the commander replied.

S’Amleng reared up to his full height, his eyes burning into those of his superior. “She humiliated me, stripping me of my weapons and armor, staining my honor. For that, I am entitled to take her life!”

The commander relented, handing S’Amleng a rifle. “Very well, you may take your vengeance on her.”

S’Amleng nodded, turning to face Thornton. He powered up his weapon, aiming it directly at Thornton’s heart before shouting, “Go!” Thornton dove to her right, rolling behind the rocks, S’Amleng turning quickly, pumping a pair of shots into the S’Parnian commander. Before the other soldiers could react, S’Amleng blasted two more, then took cover next to Thornton.

The remaining S’Parnian soldiers sought what cover they could find, the two escort ships rising into the air. Thornton peeked over the rocks, watching the escort ships approach her position, their weapons charging to eradicate her and S’Amleng. Just as the S’Parnian vessels were about to fire, a swarm of missiles slammed into each escort ship, the shots meant for S’Amleng and Thornton harmlessly boiling ocean water instead.

Davis’ss gray ExoArmor appeared, pumping round after round from the ExoArmor’s plasma cannon into the escort ships. The two alien craft seemed to wobble in the air for a moment, then both slammed into the ground. A pair of missiles launched from the sides of the ExoArmor’s arms, destroying the S’Parnian transport before it could lift off. Davis landed roughly on the beach, the ExoArmor’s small thrusters folding into its hips, the anti-personnel lasers appearing below each arm. Davis sprayed bursts from the lasers into the trees, killing the alien soldiers using the trees for cover in a hail of energy and splintered wood.

“Are you two all right?” Davis asked.

“We’re…Look out!” Thornton shouted. The S’Parnian warriors who had gone in search of any further human resistance appeared on the beach, a shot from one of their weapons striking Davis squarely in the chest. The ExoArmor absorbed the punishment, returning fire with its lasers. The S’Parnian soldiers were slaughtered in short order, Davis turning to check on S’Amleng and Thornton.

“Thanks for the warning,” Davis said.

“You’re welcome,” Thornton replied, stepping from behind the rocks.

“And you,” Davis motioned to S’Amleng. “I’m sorry I ever doubted you.”

“I did nothing,” S’Amleng responded. “We would have been killed if not for you.”

Thornton shook her head, “No, S’Amleng, you saved me. I’m sorry about what I said.” She kissed the S’Parnian on the side of his face, ignoring the strange feel of his flesh.

S’Amleng’s facial muscles contorted into what was almost a smile. “You are welcome,” he said quietly, then turned to Davis. “What do we do now?”

“Well, I guess we better get you two suited up in case they have reinforcements coming.” The thrusters folded out from the ExoArmor’s hips, Davis smiling to himself as he hefted Thornton from the ground, cradling her in his arms. “Up, up, and away,” Davis teased, shooting up into the air towards the ExoArmor transport. Thornton screamed for a moment, but then her scream turned into a joyous shout.

“This is great!” She screamed. “Maybe now we’ll be able to find Jack and the captain, if they’re still alive.”

***

Laurants walked through the empty city streets, completely oblivious to everything around him. He halfheartedly followed the map Lothgamm had given him, unable to shake the gloomy thoughts from his head. Whether it had been intentional or not, Lothgamm had erased from Shaw’s mind those magical moments when they had come together, when they had forged a relationship that was more than professional, more than friendship even. As much as Laurants wanted to think that he could somehow make it happen again, that lightning could strike twice, he knew that it was unlikely, and even if it did happen, it would not be the same.

He felt something touch his arm, turning he saw Shaw frowning at him. “Is something wrong? You haven’t said a single word since the train station.”

“I guess I don’t feel like talking,” Laurants replied noncommittally.

“I keep getting the feeling that there’s something you haven’t told me.”

“I don’t think I left anything out, at least nothing important.” Laurants stopped, pointing to a spot just ahead. “According to the map, there’s some kind of elevator over there that will take us the rest of the way.”

“I don’t see anything,” Shaw replied. “It looks the same as the rest of the street.”

“It’s probably hidden somehow,” Laurants shrugged, carefully making his way to where the map said the elevator would be. Sure enough, as Laurants touched the pavement, it disappeared to reveal a silver tube. Stepping back, Laurants watched as something shot up the tube and emerged on the street. The object was a cylinder, its clear sides tinted a smoky brown color with a single silver panel in the middle of the cylinder. One side of the cylinder seemed to disappear, allowing Laurants and Shaw to squeeze into the object. Laurants saw nothing besides the silver panel against the wall, so he carefully reached out and touched a blue button on the panel. For a moment he thought he had hit the wrong button, then the cylinder shot back down the tube at tremendous speed. Shaw screamed, her face turning green as the cylinder executed an impossible series of rapid twists and turns, some kind of force field pinning the two humans against the sides so that they could not be thrown about by the cylinder’s quick movements.

After nearly a minute, the cylinder came to a rough stop, opening to a cliff in an enormous underground cavern that contained the most beautiful ship Laurants had ever seen. “My God,” he breathed. The ship was probably a half-mile long, its entire frame glinting silver in the dim light of the cavern. Like the buildings of Telle, the teardrop-shaped hull was smooth, looking as though it were carved rather than assembled. Laurants could make out slight bumps in the hull’s surface, whether they were for weapons or sensors he could not be certain of. He turned to Shaw to see her reaction, but her eyes seemed glazed over, staring unblinkingly into the distance. “Captain? Is something wrong?”

Shaw did not seem to hear him, her entire body shaking with spasms. She collapsed to the ground, her body continuing to twitch while white foam spewed from her mouth. Laurants knelt down beside her, unsure of what was happening or what he could do. “Lisa? Lisa!” He shouted, hoping to reach her.

Shaw sat up suddenly, waving away Laurants’s attempts to help her to her feet. “I’m fine,” she gasped.

“Fine? A minute ago you were lying on the ground, shaking and foaming at the mouth, how can you be fine now?”

“I…I heard voices, millions of them overlapping so that they all seemed to be one. Then there was one voice that seemed to rise above the others, it knew me and spoke to me about the Avenger, about the Rygans, about what we have to do now,” Shaw replied.

“What do we have to do?” Laurants asked incredulously.

“We have to free the others, but we have to hurry or we’ll be too late.”

Shaw turned towards the ship, and to his amazement, Laurants saw a gray boarding tube bridging the gap from the ship to the cliff. Once the tube had grounded itself on the surface of the cliff, Shaw stepped into the tube, striding briskly as though she had walked through it a hundred. Laurants followed cautiously behind her, unsure of the tube’s stability, and wondering to himself just what had caused the boarding tube to come out from the ship.

By the time Laurants reached the end of the tube, Shaw had already opened the airlock to the ship. She motioned for him to hurry, guiding Laurants through a series of white corridors too quickly for the ensign to notice anything about the Rygan ship. Finally stopping at a large gray door, Shaw typed in an access code, the door seeming to instantly dematerialize.

Laurants followed Shaw into a huge space that was almost empty, save for some crates and small pieces of equipment scattered about, leading Laurants to think that the room was a hangar or cargo bay of some sort. Shaw motioned for Laurants to follow her over to a computer terminal against the wall to Laurants’s left. “Stay back against the wall,” Shaw instructed Laurants. Before he could ask why, the deck just a few feet ahead began to vibrate, then a circular section about fifty feet across peeled away.

Through the hole in the deck appeared a small Rygan vehicle, Laurants assumed that it was some kind of shuttlecraft. The tiny vessel was arrowhead shaped, its thin wings gracefully curved downward and two tailfins arching delicately out of the craft’s rear so that there was not a single sharp angle on the outside of the shuttle. A portion of the shuttle’s side seemed to vanish, revealing the interior that seemed far too spacious for such a small vehicle. “That’s our ride,” Shaw said dryly, climbing into the shuttle. “Are you coming or do you want to wait for the next one?”

Laurants, too shocked to speak, simply nodded. He followed Shaw up to the cockpit, which was completely empty except for two large, plush chairs. “Where are the controls?” Laurants asked, dumbfounded.

“Don’t worry about it,” Shaw replied. She sat in the chair on the right side of the cockpit, banks of computers suddenly appearing all around the cockpit. “It’s an anti-theft device,” Shaw explained before Laurants could ask.

Laurants took the seat next to Shaw, feeling straps automatically bind him to the chair. “Did the Rygans give you a flying lesson while they were talking to you?” Laurants asked, trying to keep the anxiety from his voice.

Without answering, Shaw touched a series of controls on the displays in front of her, then took hold of the control joystick. The shuttle lifted slowly into the air, then turned one hundred eighty degrees to face the now-open hangar door. “Hold on,” Shaw said, then touched a button to her right. Laurants felt a kick in the back as the shuttle shot forward and out of the hangar. Shaw whipped the vehicle through an amazingly fast series of twists and turns through dark passages before the shuttle emerged in the bright light of the Rygan surface.

Shaw reached over, gently tapping a portion of the instrument display to Laurants’s right. “When I tell you to, I want you to hit that green button, understand?”

“Sure,” Laurants nodded as the shuttle climbed higher and higher into the air. He looked over at Shaw, wondering just what exactly had happened to her back at the ship and whether she was still the same woman he had loved. Only minutes ago she had not even known what a Rygan was, now she was expertly flying one of their ships into battle. Was this woman sitting across from him the same Lisa Shaw he had fallen in love with? Watching her fly the Rygan ship, he wondered if she was even human any more, of if Lothgamm had someone changed her.

“Sir, we are detecting a ship coming from the planet’s surface. Its profile does not match anything of S’Parnian design,” the sensor officer reported. S’Segar walked over to the officer’s station, examining the sensor readings.

“If it is not one of ours, then it must be an enemy ship. I want it destroyed immediately!” S’Segar barked.

“Commander, I cannot acquire the target,” the weapons officer called out.

“What? Why not?”

“I do not know, sir. The targeting systems do not recognize the alien vessel’s existence.”

“Then go to manual targeting systems!”

Beams of light lanced past the Rygan shuttle, the tiny ship too quick to be hit. S’Segar cursed to himself, wondering what the alien vessel was doing. Could it be on some kind of suicide run? He wondered. “Can we launch escort ships from the hangars?”

“No, sir, all contact has been lost with the Hangar One, the others are still engaged in collection operations.”

S’Segar cursed again, trying to control his emotions. He had little doubt that if the collection vessel were badly damaged by this alien ship, his head would be taken from his shoulders, his body processed for collection. Even if S’Olonny did not kill him, S’Segar knew that his career would be all but finished. “Keep firing!” He roared, hurling himself into the command chair, his hands clamping down tightly on the armrests.

Laurants thought he was going to be sick, the Rygan ship weaving violently back and forth to avoid the shots coming from the S’Parnian ship. “That was close,” he heard Shaw mumble as a blast went only a few inches past the shuttle’s nose. “Ensign Laurants, I want you to push the button in front of you when I count to three. Got it?”

“I got it, but what the hell are we doing? We can’t possibly destroy them or even cause any real damage with a ship this small.”

“We don’t need much damage, just enough to make a door.” Shaw rocked the Rygan shuttle hard to the right once again, the massive S’Parnian ship looming before them, then she looked over to Laurants. “Ready? One…two…three!”

Laurants stabbed the green button Shaw had indicated, watching two purple fireballs streak from the shuttle into the hull of the S’Parnian vessel. There was a small explosion, chunks of debris breaking off, Shaw expertly dodging the shrapnel to line the shuttle up with the tiny hole blasted into the hull. A last barrage from the alien ship blazed just past where the shuttle had been, then Shaw brought the Rygan vessel through the hole and into the hangar bay.

“They have landed in the hangar!” The S’Parnian sensor officer shouted.

“Dispatch all available troops to Hangar One immediately!” S’Segar bellowed. “They are not to leave this ship alive!”

Rosaro parried S’Olonny’s thrust, her own counterattack stopped before her S’Zai could slice into S’Olonny’s arm. She kicked S’Olonny in the midsection, causing him to stumble back a few steps, but he still managed to block Rosaro’s S’Zai blade. The two warriors’ swords were locked for a moment, both growling as they summoned every ounce of strength to push the other backwards. S’Olonny finally pushed Rosaro’s sword arm away, taking a vicious swing at her exposed chest. Rosaro jumped back, S’Olonny’s S’Zai blade just grazing her abdomen, a thin line of blood trickling from the wound. Oblivious to the pain, Rosaro managed to bring her S’Zai around, but her swing was weak and easily taken by S’Olonny’s weapon. Spitting a curse, Rosaro brought her left arm around, cuffing the S’Parnian warrior on the side of the head.

S’Olonny lurched back a step, nearly losing his balance when Rosaro tried to sweep his legs out from under him. Rosaro let out a victorious yell, the momentum clearly on her side as she forced S’Olonny back more and more. S’Olonny tried to find an opening, but this S’Zai-wielding demon was not the same weakling who had opposed him before. Rosaro stopped suddenly, as a scream echoed across the hangar. Turning her head for an instant, she could see that Flanders had been hit in the shoulder, the S’Parnian soldiers pressing their attack now.

Rosaro was frozen in place, a snarl fixed on her lips as she was torn between finishing her duel with S’Olonny or coming to the rescue of her human comrades. Finally, she did a back-flip away from S’Olonny, racing towards the S’Parnian soldiers. She could hear S’Olonny scream something from behind her, some of the alien soldiers turning in her direction at the shout. Rosaro easily dodged the shots from the S’Parnian warriors, then she smashed into them, her S’Zai blade brutally making short work of them.

Cromwell and the others could only watch as Rosaro fought like a woman possessed, throwing aside bodies like they were nothing at all. “Jesus Christ!” Cromwell swore, using Rosaro’s distraction to help the injured Flanders into the S’Parnian transport. “Any luck with the doors?”

“No,” S’Tallen replied fearfully as he half-watched Rosaro slaughter his compatriots. “The bridge has locked out all outside computer access. There is no way around it.”

“Then we have to find some other way to get that hangar door open before they bring in reinforcements.”

Rosaro continued to tear apart the S’Parnian forces, turning just as S’Olonny’s S’Zai blade was about to cut her in half. Rosaro unsteadily blocked the S’Parnian captain’s swing, leaping into the air just as an alien soldier was about to grab her. S’Olonny watched Rosaro reach the apex of her jump, then just as she was coming down the hangar door blasted open. The entire hangar bay was turned into a vacuum, machinery and corpses sucked out into space before emergency systems could seal the rupture. Rosaro was carried through the air, reaching out with one hand to grab anything to stop herself from being blown out into space, her hand catching the tail fin of a S’Parnian transport just a yard short of the door.

A small silver craft suddenly shot through the opening in the hangar door, coming to a stop only a few feet from Rosaro. Emergency systems kicked in just before Rosaro’s fingers lost their grip on the alien transport, allowing her to drop her S’Zai to the deck and make her way down the transport. Rosaro took a rifle from a fallen S’Parnian soldier, using the rifle to cover the others as they dodged alien fire to transfer from the transport to the Rygan shuttle.

S’Tallen was the last to leave the transport, clearly torn about which direction he should take. Rosaro ended his conflict by shoving him roughly into the shuttle then diving aboard. “Go, go!” She screamed up to Shaw in the cockpit. The Rygan shuttle lifted off, turning one hundred eighty degrees as it hovered in the air, absorbing the punishment from the S’Parnian reinforcements below.

S’Olonny watched helplessly as the strange vessel shot out of the hangar bay and back into space. Slamming the flat of his S’Zai into a wall, S’Olonny angrily stormed out of the hangar. Not only had the enemy escaped, but he had still not completed the honor duel. No matter, he mused. I will soon crush their homeworld and bring its bio-energy back to S’Parni, where it will feed generations of S’Parnians.

***

S’Segar grabbed the weapons officer by the back of his armor then shoved the officer into his own computer terminal. All activity on the bridge ceased immediately, scared S’Parnian officers staring at S’Segar. The first officer seemed to tremble like a volcano about to erupt, but then he calmly pulled the dead weapons officer’s head back from the shattered computer screen. “Are any of our forces still on the surface?” He asked.

“No, sir. We have lost contact with the two escort ships sent to the surface,” the communications officer reported nervously.

S’Segar fumed, about to explode into violence once again when the bridge doors parted, S’Olonny stomping into the room. Without speaking, S’Olonny slapped S’Segar across the face. There was a tense moment of silence, then S’Olonny bellowed, “I left you in command and you not only allowed the ship to be damaged, you let the prisoners escape! I should kill you now for your incompetence!” S’Olonny plucked his S’Zai from its sheath, holding the point just under S’Segar’s throat. “But instead I will allow you to redeem yourself. Navigation, take the ship out of orbit, then set course for Earth.”

“We are going to let the prisoners live?” S’Segar asked, feeling the point of the crystal sword still against his neck.

“We have wasted enough resources on this rabble. Now it is time to go to the source of this vermin and wipe their contagion from the galaxy,” S’Olonny growled, finally taking the S’Zai from S’Segar’s neck. S’Olonny sat in his command chair, fuming quietly as the collection vessel’s mighty engines propelled it from orbit and back into deep space. Before the ship disappeared into hyperspace, S’Olonny could not help but take one last look at the planet and think of the humans who had escaped his grasp. I will finish you one day, once your home planet is reduced to smoldering ashes and my cargo is delivered to S’Parni, I will make it my life’s work to find you and kill you for your treachery.

Chapter Nine

2007-06-12T13:11:00.001-07:00

Chapter Nine

The survivors of the battle in Alligator Bay had all been stuffed into one twelve-foot square room that contained no furniture, toilet, or supplies of any kind. There was not enough room for the thirty humans to all stretch out to sleep, so the survivors were forced to take turns lying down while the others stood or squatted. For Ensign Jerry Klein, the cramped living quarters had driven him to the brink of insanity from claustrophobia. Adding to his discomfort was that his alien captors had not once provided any food or water, forcing him and the others to rely on what few stores they had been permitted to keep.

Klein was squatting in a corner, scratching at his thin, week-old beard, when the door to the room finally opened. Klein recognized the huge alien in blue armor, it had plucked him out of the water after he had been shot and dragged him to where the other unconscious humans were piled. The alien’s orange eyes, burning like those of some demonic spirit, turned towards Klein. The alien motioned to two other soldiers with him, pointing towards the human helmsman, the two soldiers dragging Klien from the room by his arms. Klein could also see Lieutenant Susan Sanders being taken from the room and tried to shout something to her, but felt something heavy hit him in the back of the head, knocking him unconscious.

When Klein awoke, he was sitting in a chair, held fast by magnetic restraints. Two aliens, the big one in blue armor and a much smaller one, were standing over him. Glancing to his right, he could see Sanders also strapped into a chair. The big alien growled something, which the smaller alien repeated. “He says that he has lost patience with your people. You are dishonorable worms and he will not tolerate you any longer. Tell him the location of your home planet or he will kill you both.”

“We won’t tell you anything!” Sanders shouted, looking to Klein for support. Klein gulped, the big alien’s eyes boring into him. Without a word, the alien pulled out a sword, the blade slicing open Sanders’ midsection. Sanders screamed, unable to do anything but watch blood and entrails ooze slowly from the wound.

The little alien turned towards Klein. “Tell him what he wants to know or you will be next.” Klein shivered, watching the life drain from Sanders as blood accumulated at her feet. The big alien growled something to the smaller one, who translated, “We will give you time to contemplate your choice.” Both aliens strode quickly from the room, leaving Klein alone with Sanders’ dying body.

“Jerry…don’t tell them…anything,” Sanders whispered, her face turning a ghostly shade of white as her blood emptied out onto the deck. Klein fought against his restraints, trying desperately to free himself to help Sanders, but the restraints held him in place as Sanders let out her final breath.

“No!” Klein sobbed. “You bastards!” Klein struggled against his restraints until he was out of strength. Looking over at Sanders’ corpse, her dead eyes pleaded with him to help her, the stink of death filled his nostrils. Sweat beaded on his brow, visions of the green crystal blade tearing her open filled his brain until at last he could take no more, screaming incoherently until his throat was raw and he passed out.

***

Arsa Veranda could feel her life slipping away. The flood of memories shooting past her in the darkness was now only a trickle, each precious moment slipping her grasp bringing her one step closer to nothingness. No, I can’t let this happen! Her mind screamed. Her hands clawed madly for any memory, trying to keep just one from fading away so that she could remember who she was, so that Arsa Veranda would not die. Please, just let me keep one! She urged her fingers to reach higher, until they finally touched one streak of light, her entire arm starting to glow.

She awoke to someone gently nudging her in the back. Rolling over, Veranda opened her eyes to see the smiling face of her mother. “Come on, Arsa, today is your big day,” her mother said cheerfully.

Veranda sat up, scratching her head as she tried to think of what her mother was talking about. Looking around the tiny, two-room house, Veranda remembered what her parents had told her weeks ago. A family from England was coming to take Veranda to their home so that she could go to a good school. Veranda had no idea where England was, but she suspected that it was far away from Kenya.

“I don’t want to go,” Veranda protested as she crawled out of the bed she shared with her five brothers and sisters.

Scrambling through the battered set of drawers that held all of the family’s clothes, Veranda’s mother replied, “I don’t want you to go either, but you have to go to a good school if you want to make something of yourself.”

Veranda’s mother tossed her a faded pink dress, which Veranda began to dutifully put on. “Aren’t there good schools here?”

Veranda’s mother tousled her curly black hair, saying sadly, “No, there aren’t. Now be a good girl and pack up your things.”

“All right, Mother,” Veranda replied. She searched through the house for the few toys her family had either made for her or been able to buy, tossing the toys into a sack, she saw her father appear in the doorway. “Father!” Veranda blurted out, rushing into his arms.

Veranda’s father scooped her up, putting her on his broad shoulders. “Is my little girl ready to go?” He asked.

“Yes,” Veranda replied, without enthusiasm.

Her father placed her on the ground, squatting down to look her in the eyes. “I know this isn’t easy, but we want what is best for you. From the tests you took at school, you are much too smart to stay here, you need to go somewhere you can have a future. Don’t worry though,” her father stopped, wiping the tears from Veranda’s face. “When you’re old enough, you can come back here to visit, or to stay if you want. All right?”

Veranda sniffled, “All right.”

There was a crunching sound outside, Veranda’s father picking her up and taking her outside to where a black hoverlimo waited. A man and woman exited from the rear of the limo, the woman’s eyes lighting up as she saw Veranda. “Is that her?” The woman asked excitedly.

“This is Arsa,” Veranda’s father replied. “Arsa, this is Mr. And Mrs. Schumaker.”

Veranda pressed closer to her father, fresh tears coming to her eyes. “Oh dear,” Mrs. Schumaker breathed. “Have I upset her?”

“She is a little scared of leaving her home,” Veranda’s father replied.

Mr. Schumaker shifted nervously, running a hand through his thinning brown hair. “If it’s going to be a problem, maybe we can come back later.”

“No, no, it’s better to get this over with,” Veranda’s father said sadly. He turned his head, looking Veranda in the eyes. “Arsa, how old are you?”

“Six…and a half,” Veranda sniffed, her vision blurry with tears.

“That’s right, that makes you a big girl now. I want you to be a big girl now and stop that crying. These are your new parents, they won’t hurt you.”

“No, I won’t go!” Veranda protested, wriggling free from her father’s grasp. She took off down the old dirt path leading out of the village. Her legs pumped as hard as they ever had, her mind thinking only of escaping from her “new” parents, so that she would not have to go so far away from her family. As she ran, everything seemed to be getting larger while it was harder and harder to keep running. Her legs suddenly gave out, sending her toppling into a puddle.

She tried to stand, but her legs would not support her. In the murky water, she could see the reflection of a tiny chocolate-colored infant, wispy black curls covering its scalp. Reaching out with a tiny hand, Veranda touched the surface of the water, sending ripples through her reflection. She felt arms scooping her up from the ground, her mother’s face dominating her entire world. “Arsa, my little gazelle, how did you get here?” Her mother asked, playfully tickling Veranda’s nose.

Veranda tried to ask her mother what was happening, but all that came out was a gurgling sound. Her mother’s kind face faded from her vision, Veranda reached out to try to hold on to her mother, but her tiny fingers could latch on to nothing. In frustration, in sadness, in desperation, Veranda let out a high-pitched wail, finding herself alone in the darkness.

Her small body was shaken by violent spasms, causing her to scream incoherently intot he dark, but no one could hear her, no one could help her. She pleaded with the emptiness around her for someone to save her as her flesh began to change to a dark green, its texture becoming scaly. She wanted to cry, to scream, to laugh, she wanted to do anything, but could only watch as her humanity slipped away.

She heard a familiar voice calling out to her like a lullaby, its tone easing her fear. The voice started to fade, blurs of light streaking over Veranda’s head. She reached out with a small hand, squealing joyfully when her arm started to glow as she came into contact with one of the lights.

Veranda suddenly found herself in a shallow pit of mud, staring up at an olive sky laden with thick gray clouds. Aliens towered over her, a tan-skinned alien plucking her from the nest she was sharing with five other miniature S’Parnians. The tan-skinned alien hummed a soothing tune, then turned to face a pair of gray-skinned aliens.

One of the gray aliens spoke, “Your son has reached the age of acceptance. By orders of the Grand Council, he is to be remanded into our custody, so that he may learn the skills he will need to serve his people.”

Veranda was set on the ground, one of the gray aliens grabbing her roughly by the arm. “What is to become of my son?”

“He will be placed on one of the collection vessels, where he will be trained by warriors until he has reached maturity.”

“Tell the Grand Council I am humbled by the faith they have in my son.”

“Of course. We will tell them of your generous sacrifice.” A hatch of the wheeled vehicle opened, the gray aliens shoving Veranda towards it.

“No, I don’t want to go!” Veranda screamed. She fought against the aliens, kicking one in the leg. She felt the grip holding her loosen, allowing her to break free. She ran away from the three aliens, streaking down a muddy path, until she fell face-first into a pool of water.

She tried to rise from the water, but her tiny legs were not strong enough. The tiny, hoodless face of a hatchling stared back at her from the water, mocking her. Veranda growled something incoherently, weakly splashing the water with a clawed hand, trying to destroy the reflection, but all she did was send a few puny ripples through it.

Something plucked her from the water, turning her so that she could see the face of the tan-skinned alien, her mother. “S’Amleng, you will be a great warrior some day, you will save our people from this curse.” The tan alien rocked Veranda back and forth, her face slowly fading. Veranda reached out with her small fingers, not wanting the kindly alien to disappear. She tried to scream, but it came out only as a pitiful wail, then she was left in the darkness.

There were no streaks of light around, no voice calling to her, she was all alone, the weight of the blackness suffocating her. Her entire body was wracked with sobs, her mind unable to create any rational thoughts. She could only feel that everything she was had been taken, everything important stolen from her.

Out of the darkness, she saw a being made entirely of white light, except for orange eyes that stared at her soothingly. “Do not be afraid, your journey is only beginning. You are the hope for the entire universe, the light that will erase the darkness for all time. Do not fear your destiny, embrace it.”

“But who am I?” Veranda stammered, feeling naked and dirty in the presence of the light.

“You will know, in time,” the light being replied, then its entire body seemed to expand, until there was an explosion of light brighter than a thousand stars exploding. Veranda’s eyes opened, unable to see anything except a thick blue gel. She opened her mouth to scream, but the gel smothered the cry, choking her until she was unconscious.

***

The planet’s moon was high in the sky when Davis finally signaled for the others to halt. Even S’Amleng seemed grateful for the chance to rest, silently moving into the brush to create a small nest in the mud to sleep in. After he had regained consciousness, the alien soldier had stayed apart from the humans, seemingly in shock over what had happened. Thornton dropped her heavy pack to the ground, shivering in the cold while Davis searched the brush for flammable materials to make a fire with.

Thornton rummaged through the pack Flanders had given her, pulling out the thermal coat, although she did not dare activate the heating fluid in the coat until they had actually climbed into the mountains. Donning the gloves that were in the pack, Thornton couldn’t help but wonder what they were going to do when they reached the mountains. They had only one set of equipment for all three of them, and who knew how a reptilian creature like S’Amleng would react to the colder climate of the mountains.

Davis returned, dumping an armload of plants and tree branches into a heap on the ground. Looking at Thornton he grinned, “I guess you don’t have much faith in my fire-making abilties.”

“I just didn’t want to freeze to death before you came back,” Thornton replied, trying to keep her voice light. “I’ve been wondering, though, what are we going to do when we get to the mountains? We only have one set of climbing claws.”

Davis shrugged, clearing a small circle of dirt for the fire. “We’ll have to go up one at a time, or maybe I can climb up and drop a line for you and Sam. We’ll worry about that later, right now let’s deal with one crisis at a time.”

Thornton nodded wearily, “I guess you’re right. So what do we do with Sam?”

“He comes with us,” Davis replied firmly.

“You saw what he did to his own kind back there, how do we know he won’t suddenly turn and do the same to us!”

Davis sighed wearily, “I know that you don’t trust him, but what’s going on with him seems to defy any kind of logical explanation. If we can find out what is happening to him, maybe it can give us some clue about their weaknesses, some way we can fight back against these aliens. Or at least we might be able to get the information to Earth, so they won’t meet the same fate as the Explorer.”

“There’s no way to talk you out of it, right?”

“No.”

It was Thornton’s turn to sigh with exasperation. “Just like my father, once he made up his mind, no one in the galaxy could change it.” Her face darkened sadly, “that was the reason I had to get away from him, because he’d made his mind up on my future.”

Davis stopped building the fire, turning to look at Thornton, “What did he want you to do?”

“Have you ever heard of Thor-Tek Industries?”

Davis shrugged, “I never had a need to read the business reports.”

“It’s the company my family started almost a century ago, founded by my great-grandfather. Upon my great-grandfather’s death, my grandfather took over, then my father took over for him when he retired about twenty years ago.” Thornton paused, wiping away a tear before continuing. “I’m an only child, so it was only natural that when I turned eighteen, he wanted to send me to some snooty business school so that I could start to follow in his footsteps. But I got the last laugh, right after my high school graduation I ran away to Vancouver and enrolled in the Alliance Academy, the one place he could never touch me.”

Davis was stunned, not knowing quite what to say. He had seen his share of runaways in his time, most ran away because of abuse at home, but he had never imagined that someone like Thornton would be a runaway. “I’m sorry,” Davis stammered. “I’m sure he only wanted what he thought was best.”

“He wanted what was best for his company, his own personal interests, not what was the best for me.”

“And this is better?” Davis asked sarcastically, trying to lighten the mood. Instead, Thornton started to sob, burying her face in her hands. Feeling responsible for the emotional outburst, Davis put his arm around Thornton’s shoulders. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it.”

“No, you’re right. This isn’t better. When I signed up, I thought I would just be working on a ship, I didn’t think I would have to play soldier.” She stopped, trying to dry some of the tears streaking down her face. “I’m not a warrior, not like you, that’s why I’ve been so useless.”

“No, you haven’t been useless…” Davis started to protest, but she cut him off angrily.

“I couldn’t help Ramirez, and I couldn’t help Private Flanders, that’s why he had me run away, because he knew that’s the only thing I am good at!”

Davis took Thornton forcefully by the shoulders, his eyes boring into her with cold fury. “Stop this self-pitying crap right now! There was nothing any of us could have done for Private Ramirez, he was beyond our help. I’ve known Private Flanders for a while now, he’s a smart soldier, and if he told you to run, it was because it was what was best for everyone, not just for you. Now maybe you didn’t sign on with the intention of fighting a war, but that’s what’s happened, and we all have to do our part.” Davis’s voice changed, becoming softer, more fatherly. “I’m going to need your help to find those ExoArmors, I have to be able to count on you, all right?”

“All right,” Thornton replied weakly. Davis let his hands slip off of her shoulders, turning his attention back to the fire. He used the lighter in Thornton’s pack to set fire to the brush he had collected, smoldering ashes gradually giving life to roaring tongues of flame, a thin trail of smoke boiling into the dark sky.

“Why don’t you get some sleep, the fire should keep you warm enough,” Davis offered. Thornton nodded numbly, rolling onto the ground, her back facing away from Davis. The weary sergeant waited a few minutes, then crept over to where Thornton lay, seeing her eyes closed tightly, her soft breaths creating wisps of steam in the cold air. For a moment, shivering against the frigid breezes, Davis wished that he had not lost his pack during the battle, but there was little he could do about it now. Taking his pistol from his belt, Davis went to check on S’Amleng, then, seeing that the alien was fast asleep in his mud nest, Davis started to prowl the perimeter, making sure that no alien patrols were approaching or waiting in ambush.

When Thornton awoke, the fire was all but out, just a few tiny flames still burning in the dim predawn light. Thornton thought she heard a sound coming from the brush, but she could see nothing. She rolled onto her back, staring up at the few stars still visible. She thought about what Davis had said, trying to tell herself that he was right, that she was just feeling sorry for herself. I should never have run away, she thought. I should have done what Dad wanted me to do, instead of throwing a tantrum like a little girl, acting like a spoiled brat because I couldn’t have my way. If I ever get back, Dad and I are going to have to have a serious talk.

The stars above her were suddenly blotted out, replaced by two brown eyes, burning with hatred. “You, it was you! You did this!” She heard S’Amleng growl, his clawed hands wrapping around her throat, cutting off any scream for help.

Thornton fought against his grip, but it was like a titanium vise slowly closing on her throat. “No,” Thornton managed to wheeze. “Sam! Stop!”

“No, give me back my life!” S’Amleng hefted Thornton to her feet, hurling her into the brush. Thornton lay dazed in a tangle of weeds, trying to catch her breath. She could hear S’Amleng’s footsteps coming, but she could do little more than roll onto her knees and crawl a few feet, before his hand caught hold of the back of her jacket. “I don’t want to hear your lies, I only want you to undo what you have done to me!”

S’Amleng flung her back towards the fire, this time Thornton managed to roll to her feet and grab a thick, smoldering branch from the fire. She swung the branch wildly at S’Amleng, but he grabbed hold of the stick, violently tugging it from her hands. His eyes glowed with murderous intent, the muscles in his legs and tail coiling in preparation of pouncing on Thornton to finish her off. As he was about to spring, S’Amleng stopped, turning to face something, but Thornton could only see empty air.

“Help me!” S’Amleng pleaded with the emptiness around him. “Who am I?” He roared, his arms reaching out tentatively. The S’Parnian was suddenly wracked with violent spasms, collapsing into the dirt. Thornton heard something crashing through the brush, turning to see Davis skidding to a stop, his mouth agape.

“What the hell is going on?” He demanded.

“I don’t know…” Thornton stammered, fresh tears coming to her eyes. “I was sleeping and then…then he attacked me. He tried to strangle me, and just before he was going to kill me…he stopped and then started to shake.”

Davis took Thornton into his arms, gently stroking her hair. “It’s going to be all right,” he whispered, taking out his pistol. He let Thornton go, moving silently towards S’Amleng. The S’Parnian was still twitching on the ground, his eyes closed, tail lying limply between his legs. Davis put the pistol at the base of the alien’s neck, hoping that it would not take more than one shot to finish S’Amleng.

Davis tightened his finger on the trigger, hesitating for a moment, until he looked back at Thornton. With renewed determination, he was about to squeeze the trigger, when he was blinded by a flash of white light. The pistol fell from Davis’s grasp as he collapsed to his knees, his hands going to his eyes in utter agony. “Davis!” He heard Thornton shout and felt her hands on him, trying to roll him over onto his back, then he blacked out.

When he finally blinked his eyes open, he found himself looking up at Thornton and S’Amleng. The S’Parnian offered a hand, which Davis batted aside, rising to his feet under his own power.

“You monster!” Davis shouted, hands going for S’Amleng’s throat, but Thornton imposed herself between them.

“Davis, stop! It wasn’t him!”

“What do you mean it wasn’t him? How many other aliens are there around here?” Davis demanded angrily.

“No, I mean that it wasn’t him, not in spirit. He was possessed or something.”

“It’s true,” S’Amleng said slowly. “I heard a voice calling to me, then I felt this flood of strange, alien emotions. I felt…I felt like I was watching myself from outside my body, I had no control over what I did.”

“And you believe him?” Davis asked Thornton skeptically.

“At first I didn’t, but then it all began to make sense. The spasms, the way his eyes would change, how he could speak English one moment then not know a word of it the next. The only explanation that makes sense is that something, or someone, was controlling him.”

“You wanted to kill him back in the swamp, why the change of heart?”

Thornton shrugged, “I still don’t trust him, but yesterday we could only communicate him with crude hand signals, and today he can speak English as fluently as you or I. It has to be some kind of sign.”

“A sign? What about him attacking you, what kind of sign was that?”

“I don’t expect you to understand, but just as he was about to kill me, something stopped him. Something that only he could see.”

“It was a spirit, a messenger from the gods, sent to quell my madness,” S’Amleng interjected.

Davis groaned, “Did you two lose your fucking minds while I was out?”

“I am sorry about what happened, but the spirit told me that I must continue on the path I have started. I must stay with you if I am to achieve the great tasks the gods have set for me.” S’Amleng stopped, his voice turning sad. “My own people will not want me back now. They will interrogate me, study me, take my mind apart, and then kill me to make sure that whatever disease has infected me does not spread. Please, let me come with you, I have nowhere else to go.”

Davis looked at Thornton, sighing loudly. “All right, you can come, but if you touch her again, I’ll rip your heart out with my bare hands.”

S’Amleng nodded fearfully, then Davis went to gather up the humans’ equipment and snuff out the fire. Thornton took S’Amleng’s arm, smiling, “Come on, you’re one of us now.”

***

There was nothing around Rosaro, only darkness. She had no idea if she was alive or dead, if she was moving or still, if she was unconscious or awake, she could feel nothing. She tried to scream, to cry out against the darkness, but she had no voice. Her mind was filled with confusion, calling out silently for someone, somewhere to help her, to tell her what was going on.

From the darkness came a single point of brilliant white light. The light seemed to expand as it came closer, until it finally surrounded Rosaro. In the light, Rosaro could make out the form of a woman, a tall, beautiful woman, whose luminous body seemed to be the source of the light. In the harsh glow of the light, Rosaro could only feel dirty and shameful, unfit to gaze upon such a wondrous sight.

Orange eyes, as bright as twin suns, bored into Rosaro’s soul, transfixing her. A voice, its tone as melodious as the greatest symphonies ever composed by humans, said, “The time of convergence is at hand. The seeds of destiny have already been planted in the past, but now they must be nourished in the present if they are to be reaped in the future. Are you ready to receive your destiny, Amanda Rosaro?”

“I…I don’t understand,” Rosaro stammered.

“A great destiny lies ahead of all people, all races, but to achieve this destiny, the price must be paid with the blood of three: the Guardian, the Savior, and the Preserver. For it is these three who will pave the way for the ultimate transformation, when the entire universe will be filled with nothing but light and joy. If the sacrifices are not made, darkness will continue to smother the light until all corners of the universe have become tainted with its evil. You, Amanda, must choose.” The voice stopped and the light dimmed, allowing Rosaro to see the storage container of the alien ship where her own body lay bleeding and broken. Rosaro gasped, finally realizing that she was dead. “You have been spared from the cold prison of death because you are the only one worthy to protect the Savior and the Preserver until their work is done.”

“The Savior? The Preserver? Who are they?” Rosaro asked skeptically.

“You will know them, you will hear them call to you, for your fates are interwoven.”

“Why me? I couldn’t save my own men, how can I save the entire universe?”

“Why is not important. You must make a choice: accept your fate and its consequences or you will be returned to your body to complete the last moments of your existence. Be warned, though, the duty of the Guardian comes with grave consequences. You will face hardship, pain, and ultimately death. It is time to decide if you are worthy of the destiny thrust upon you.”

Rosaro stared at her own body, lying on the cracked surface of the alien container. The shattered remains of her face were locked in a scream, her unseeing eyes staring up into infinity. She thought of S’Olonny standing up on the pipes, watching her fall to her death, the look of delight on his face as she plunged to her end. A fury filled her, her mind filled with hate for the alien who had intentionally thrown her off of the pipes, mercilessly savoring the look of terror in her eyes.

“I want to go back,” Rosaro announced.

“You are prepared to accept your destiny, no matter the cost?”

“I am ready,” Rosaro replied solemnly.

“Then go, meet your fate.” The light intensified once more, wiping away the image of Rosaro’s corpse. The orange eyes of the woman disappeared, swirls of colors forming around her body. The colors danced around Rosaro, blending together in a maelstrom of light, until she was blinded. The lights came closer and closer, finally touching Rosaro’s skin, her entire body beginning to glow. Unimaginable pain shot through Rosaro, the colored lights seemed to burn into her soul, into her being. She felt as though she were being dissected, then reassembled cell by cell. She finally collapsed, falling through space, through time, through eternity until her eyes snapped open.

Rosaro found herself on the alien storage container, staring up at the pipes maze of pipes far overhead. She held her hands in front of her face, looking for signs of injury, but her body was completely healed. A strange clear gel, a rainbow of lights seeming to swirl around in the substance, coated her hands. Rosaro wiped her hands dry against the tattered remains of her clothes, as she got uneasily to her feet, and saw the S’Zai she had been given lying a few feet away. The blue crystal sword had turned orange, as orange as the luminous woman’s eyes had been in her vision.

Other than the sword, there was nothing different about Rosaro. Seeing her reflection in the clear surface of the container, she could see that her eyes were still brown, her hair was still black, her skin was still the same tan color it had always been. So what do I do now? She wondered, but stopped herself. She sensed something, a distant voice crying out to her. Looking around the container, she found a support strut leading to a maintenance tunnel. Crawling through the tunnel, Rosaro was left to ponder the strange things she had just witnessed. Had it actually happened or had she imagined it all? Closing her eyes, she could feel the orange eyes upon her, burning into her soul. “Go, meet your destiny,” the voice intoned.

***

The S’Parnian scouts walked cautiously through the empty streets of Telle, amazed at the technology all around them. There was no sign of the fugitives, so S’Revlar had sent one of his scouts up ahead in an attempt to flush out enemy resistance. While impressed by the city, S’Revlar would not let it distract him from his true purpose. He would kill his quarry and then report the city to S’Olonny so that S’Parni could benefit from the technological wonders of Telle.

S’Revlar’s communicator beeped, the scout he had sent ahead reporting his findings, “Sir, I have scouted seven blocks ahead, there are no signs of enemy forces.”

“Excellent, but I want you to remain sharp. Just because the enemy did not fire upon you does not mean they are not here. They may merely be waiting to ambush us all.”

“I will be watchful…” The scout was interrupted by the sound of gunfire. “I am hit…sir. One alien…species unknown.” There was then only the sound of silence, telling S’Revlar that the scout had been killed.

“Come on!” S’Revlar shouted, running for the scout’s last position, hoping to find some sign of the fugitives. He skidded to a halt, seeing the corpse of the scout lying in the street. S’Revlar saw a shadow against the side of an octagonal skyscraper, obviously the assailant trying to flee.

S’Revlar signaled for his troops to halt, examining the dead scout. A single shot had burned through the S’Parnian scout’s armor and deep into his chest, killing him instantly. “It appears that our prey is heavily armed, we should approach this situation with caution,” S’Revlar said. “Split into pairs and keep your eyes open for any sign of a trap.”

The scouts nodded, although S’Revlar got the sense that they were shaken by seeing what had happened to one of their comrades. S’Revlar took the point, his eyes searching for any indication that he was being led into a trap. Following the path he had seen the alien take, S’Revlar entered a dark alley between two enormous buildings. His sensors indicated that there was nothing in the alley, but S’Revlar could not help but feel that he was being hunted. Looking up, S’Revlar thought he saw a shadow move on the walkway between the two buildings.

The alley led to a wide street surrounded by metal sidewalks. As the S’Parnians stepped onto the sidewalk, the left side came to life, briskly moving the scouts northward. S’Revlar motioned for his scouts to be still, unsure of whether this was some kind of trap set by the aliens or if the sidewalk was merely responding to the stimulus of the scouts stepping onto it. There was no danger as far as S’Revlar could tell, at least not yet.

The moving sidewalk stopped at stairs leading to a wide black platform. Placing one foot on the stairs, the steps began to move. S’Revlar was carried up to the platform, where he saw a set of silver cylindrical vehicles, then a flash of dark blue disappear into one of them. Looking for an entrance to the cylinders, S’Revlar touched a hand against the side of one, jumping back as a hatch suddenly opened. He checked his weapon’s charge, cautiously entering the vehicle, determining that it was some kind of passenger transport by the rows of gray chairs against the sides of the vehicle. Once the other scouts had entered the vehicle, he heard the hatch seal.

“You have come seeking the blood of innocents, but it shall only be your blood that is shed,” a voice mewed from behind S’Revlar.

Turning, the S’Parnian scout saw a tall creature clad in dark blue robes that was wildly different from the two fugitives he had been chasing. “Who are you? How do you know our language?”

“I am the last Rygan, I long ago learned your tongue in preparation for this moment, when we come to the end of the circle.” The creature had a weapon in its hands, from the size of it, it seemed impossible that the weapon could have blasted through S’Parnian body armor.

“If you are the last, then it is time that your people are wiped from existence,” S’Revlar snarled, but before he could fire a shot, a translucent barrier separated the enemy from the scouts. The entire transport shuddered, slowly grinding forward. As the transport began to move faster and faster, S’Revlar could sense what his opponent’s plan was. He tried to blast the barrier between himself and the strange creature, but whatever the material that separated them was, it resisted the laser fire.

Frantically looking for some way out, S’Revlar finally spied a small hatch on the roof of the vehicle. The hatch looked just big enough for S’Revlar to fit through if he took off his armor. Shedding the armor quickly, S’Revlar commanded the other scouts to do the same. He took a utility belt off of the armor, fastening it around his waist, he jumped on top of a row of seats. S’Revlar’s sensors told him that the transport was moving past the speed of sound and still accelerating, but S’Revlar could not feel the increased gravity in the car, as though something in the train were somehow thwarting the laws of physics. Although there were no windows in the passenger car, S’Revlar could sense that the transport was nearing its destination. Looking through the translucent divider between the cylinders, S’Revlar could see that the enemy being was preparing to make his escape. Swinging himself through the hatch, S’Revlar could only regret that there would not be time enough to save his troops.

Lothgamm punched the button separating his transport car from the others, immediately he heard the squeal of metal pushed to the breaking point as the thrust reversers struggled to slow the car. The Rygan watched as the rest of the transport train continued on course at maximum speed, going too fast to make the turn ahead, it smashed through a barrier before plunging a dozen stories to the empty street below. Lothgamm’s car came to a halt, inches from the end of the transport tube, then slowly began to move backwards to the platform.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Lothgamm thought he heard a noise above him. Before he could react, something crashed through the small hatch on the transport’s roof. Lothgamm fired a shot at the tan shape falling from the roof, but it missed. Quickly getting to its feet, a naked S’Parnian pulled a knife from its belt, the blade plunging into Lothgamm’s chest before the Rygan could move. Stumbling backward, Lothgamm slumped to the floor, dark blood staining his robe. “I don’t know what you are, but you killed four of my scouts, now your blood will pay for their deaths.” S’Revlar waved the bloody knife in front of Lothgamm, but the Rygan merely laughed. “You dare to laugh as I hold your death in my hand?”

“You do not understand, S’Parnian. From the moment the universe was conceived, it has been leading up to this time, a time when the blood must flow in order to save everyone. Everyone! S’Parnian, human, dozens of races you have not even encountered yet, all will be brought together. As my end draws near, I can see it all,” Lothgamm coughed, spitting blood onto the floor.

“Lothgamm?” A human voice called out.

“Lisa, no!” Lothgamm shouted weakly. S’Revlar whirled around, charging towards the hatch. Before Shaw could raise her weapon, the S’Parnian scout bowled into her, both human and S’Parnian hitting the deck. Shaw’s weapon fell from her hands, clattering to the floor just out of her reach. S’Revlar pinned Shaw down, bringing up his knife, a triumphant snarl fixed on his face. Looking around desperately, Shaw could see no help. Lothgamm was trying in vain to drag himself the length of the transport car to come to her aid, but he could not make it in time. Laurants was down below, inspecting the wreckage of the train to make sure all four scouts were dead. Trying to free herself with all of her strength, Shaw watched as the blade drew closer and closer. Her eyes grew wide, a scream escaping her lips as the knife plunged into her midsection.

S’Revlar took the knife from Shaw’s body, dashing out of the car just as Laurants reached the platform, alerted by Shaw’s scream. A shot sizzled past S’Revlar, but the alien scout leapt from the platform to the street below. Laurants stood at the edge of the platform, firing a few more shots before he darted into the transport car. Immediately, he saw Shaw lying on the deck of the transport, blood spreading across her shirt. “Lisa!” Laurants shouted, kneeling down beside her, taking her hand in his.

“Jack, did you get him?” Shaw asked weakly.

“No…I missed him. I’ll find some medical supplies, I’m sure the Rygans have technology that will make you as good as new.”

Shaw squeezed Laurant’s hand, shaking her head. “There’s no time. You…you have to stop him before he tells the others…of the city. If that happens…all is lost.”

“No, I can’t just leave you here to die!” Tears came to Laurants’s cheeks. “I love you, I can’t just let you die here!”

Shaw cracked a tired smile. “I love you too, Jack, but this is how it has to be. Go…stop him before it’s too late.”

Laurants nodded, leaning down to kiss Shaw on the lips. “I won’t forget you.”

“I won’t forget you either,” Shaw replied. Laurants could see that the life was quickly fading from her. Picking up his weapon, Laurants felt a rage fill him, more intense than anything he had ever felt before. Letting Shaw’s hand drop, Laurants tore out of the transport car, allowing his hatred to guide him to wherever the alien had fled to. No matter where he goes, I will find him. I will find him and tear his heart out for what he has done to her.

Shaw’s breathing was ragged, her vision starting to dim as death closed on her. “So this…this is how it ends,” she whispered. “I failed them…I failed them all.”

She suddenly saw Lothgamm leaning over her, his voice barely audible. “Lisa, you must hold onto life. You…you are the one.”

Shaw’s head lolled from side to side, asking in confusion, “What do you mean?”

“You will find out…someday…when it is time.” Shaw felt Lothgamm’s hands grab her side, his weakened body heaving to roll her onto her side. Shaw turned her head, watching as claws sprang from Lothgamm’s fingers. She screamed in pain as he jabbed the claws into her spine, then her entire body went numb. Lothgamm’s pupils grew until his eyes were almost entirely black, his body quivering in pain.

Shaw felt a warmth flow through her body, watching in amazement as the wound in her chest sealed up without so much as a scar. Her vision returned to normal, air filled her lungs, strength came back to her limbs, her body miraculously healed.

Craning her neck, she could see that Lothgamm’s eyes were glowing a bright green, his body racked with spasms. Shaw cried out as her mind suddenly felt like it was on fire. She saw billions of images fly past her vision, images of beings and places she had never seen before. She could hear voices, billions of voices all talking at once, until they overlapped to become unintelligible noise. Her eyes began to glow the same color as Lothgamm’s, more and more sounds and images filling her mind until she screamed in agony. Unable to withstand any more punishment, Shaw passed out, her head slumping against the deck.

Finally, Lothgamm pulled his claws from Shaw’s back, wearily reaching into his robes to pull out a small, silver cube. He tucked the device into Shaw’s hands, then rolled onto his back. Staring up at the ceiling, he allowed himself a moment to think of his people, a people that were now dead. “I have done what you asked of me,” Lothgamm said quietly. “I can do no more.” His eyes closed, his head lolled to the side, his last breath left his lips, then, the Rygan people were dead forever.

Chapter Eight

2007-06-12T13:10:00.001-07:00

Chapter Eight

Once again, Arsa Veranda awoke to find herself in the dark, images streaking past her at the speed of light. No! Her mind wailed. Those are my memories, you can’t take them away from me! You bastard, those are mine! She could not remember who was doing this to her, but she knew that someone was changing her, trying to make her into something that she was not. She flailed her fists into the darkness, wishing that she could lash out at whoever was doing this to her. One of her fists seemed to pass through an image, her entire hand glowing for a brief moment, then Veranda was plunged into darkness once more.

The darkness around her slowly began to recede, a dim light coming into focus. Veranda groggily realized that she was lying on a bed, feeling the weight of blankets on top of her. She clumsily pushed the blankets off, shakily rolling from the bed to her feet. She padded across the soft carpet, stumbling into the small bathroom next to the bedroom.

Veranda could feel her stomach churning, its contents rapidly rising to her throat. She dropped down next to the toilet, vomiting for nearly a minute until her throat was raw. Easing herself to her feet, Veranda staggered to the sink, splashing cold water on her face as she tried to remember what had brought her to this state.

The last night had been a blur, but she could remember that she and a group of friends had gone off campus to a local pub. Her last coherent memory involved the four sophomores and a bottle of tequila, after that everything was fuzzy. Veranda heard the holophone ring, the sound multiplied a thousand times by her hangover, but she didn’t have the strength to go answer the call. Instead, she groped in her medicine cabinet for something to help ease the pain in her head. The holophone finally stopped ringing, activating the automated messenger. “Arsa, where are you?” Veranda heard a familiar voice ask. “The biology final starts in five minutes!”

“Oh, shit!” Veranda moaned. She sprinted into the bedroom of her apartment to find her books, throwing her biology textbook and a notebook into her bag. She dashed back into the bathroom, quickly checking herself in the mirror. She stopped, seeing her ghastly reflection in the mirror. Her eyes were completely bloodshot, her hair was in long black tangles that would take hours to straighten, and her shirt was stained with vomit and any number of mysterious liquors ingested the night before. She ran a hand over her greasy hair to smooth it as best she could, she was already going to be late for the exam, so there was no time for make-up to conceal the bags under her eyes.

She was about to dash away from the mirror, but stopped herself. What the hell am I doing? She wondered. The test is in five minutes and I haven’t attended a single lecture this semester, and it feels like the marching band is playing the fight song in my brain, how can I pass the exam? Tears stained Veranda’s bloodshot eyes as she sank down to the bathroom floor. What am I doing? She asked herself again. Everyone worked so hard to get me here, so that I could make something of myself, and I’ve just been throwing it away with drinking and partying. I wanted to make everyone proud, but instead I’ve done nothing but fail their trust in me. Why? Why did I let things come to this?

Veranda wiped the tears from her eyes, pushing herself up the bathroom wall until she was standing. In two years at Oxford University, Veranda had not enjoyed a single class, changing her major three different times. She slowly began to understand that she had turned to alcohol and wild parties to escape the misery she felt. She was not going to college for herself, but to satisfy the expectations of her parents and foster parents. At no time had she asked what she wanted, what would make her happy.

Veranda stumbled into the bedroom, seeing her new life sitting on the nightstand. Someone had been handing pamphlets out at the restaurants on campus, Veranda had taken one, but not really thought about it, until now. Sitting on the edge of her bed, Veranda read through the pamphlet, determination starting to form in her mind. She tossed the pamphlet on the bed, then started pulling clothes out of her closet. There’s nothing here for me, she thought bitterly. Stuffing her clothes into a suitcase, Veranda thought back to when she had been a child, living in Africa with her natural parents. She remembered looking up at the twinkling stars, wishing that she could be up there with them. Maybe there’s a way to make everyone proud of me, and to make myself happy, Veranda thought, casting another glance at the pamphlet on her bed. Finishing with her hurried packing, Veranda checked to see how much money she had left. She counted the wadded bills left from last night’s binge, there was barely enough to get to London. Emptying her backpack of school supplies, Veranda filled it with her few personal belongings before leaving her apartment behind. She hastily scrawled a note to her friends, which she placed under the door with her keys.

It was an hour on a bus to London, then another two hours to find the Alliance military recruitment center. There was a recruitment center at Oxford, but Veranda knew the people who worked there and did not want them to know about what she was doing. Better that I explain this to strangers, she thought. Walking into the small recruitment office, Veranda saw an Alliance lieutenant at a small desk. “Can I help you?” The female lieutenant asked.

“I want to enlist,” Veranda said simply.

Eyeing Veranda’s suitcase and backpack, the lieutenant said, “We don’t accept runaways, if there is some kind of problem at home…”

“I’m not a runaway, I’m twenty years old, that’s old enough to make these kind of decisions for myself.”

The lieutenant was a little taken aback, but nodded at Veranda. “I’ll need you to fill out a form to give us your personal information, take a brief skills test, and then submit to a drug screen.” The lieutenant handed Veranda a compad, then motioned her towards a table in the corner. Veranda sat down on the rickety wooden chair, stowing her luggage against the wall. It took her nearly three hours to complete the form and exam. She finally handed the compad back to the lieutenant, who briefly looked over the contents. “While I grade this, you can go into the next room and I’ll have someone get some readings.”

Veranda started towards the adjoining room, but the room seemed to spin as she took a step, steadying herself against the wall, Veranda felt the lieutenant’s hands on her shoulders. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine, I just had a little too much to drink last night, I’ll be all right,” Veranda waved the lieutenant away, stumbling into a tiny room that contained only a stool and a counter of medical supplies. Everything seemed to be getting darker and darker, the room fading from view, until Veranda was left in the darkness once again.

Her entire body suddenly erupted into violent spasms, her entire world reduced to only the intense pain coursing through her. She saw her skin start to change color and texture through the haze of torment and tried to will herself to stop the hideous transformation, but it could not be stayed. Gradually the pain sudsided, until she was left flexing clawed, four-fingered hands before orange, reptilian eyes.

She could feel a familiar presence, an almost-voice calling out to her. Frantically, she lashed out with her hands, trying to strike the alien presence to stop its insistent whispering. I’ll kill you! She raged. Get out of my head!

As if it were responding to her, Veranda could feel the alien presence fading from her mind. The whispering voice was replaced by strange images appearing before Veranda, streaking past her outstretched hands, until one brushed against her right hand, setting it aglow. Veranda screamed as she was plunged back into pure darkness, then opened her eyes slowly to a large, gray room.

“Your trainer tells me that you have reached the point of maturation, but what I have found is that while many hatchlings shed their skins to become juveniles in appearance, they are not still not mature enough to survive training. So consider this a test,” Veranda heard a voice growl in her ear. Before Veranda could try to get to her feet again, she was kicked in the ribs once again.

Without thinking, Veranda lashed out with her left foot, sweeping it around to trip her attacker. She felt something heavy fall on top of her, heaving it off before getting to her feet. As she did, she saw that she was in a small room of gray metal walls, an alien in red armor stirring at her feet. She gasped as she held alien hands up to her face. Before she could wonder what was happening, the alien got to its feet and punched Veranda squarely in the face. Veranda slammed against the wall, spots forming before her eyes as she slid down the wall to the floor. The alien stood over her, wiping blood from its lip. “You dare to strike a superior officer?” The alien roared, smashing Veranda in the chest with his fist. “You, who are barely even a juvenile would challenge me?” The alien hit Veranda again, this time in the face. Veranda felt blood in her mouth, spitting it out, she rose to her feet.

She stared into the alien’s eyes for a moment, then lunged forward. She pinned the alien against the wall, unleashing a barrage of punches to the alien’s face. The alien withstood the punishment, then kicked Veranda in her midsection, upending her. Veranda staggered back to her feet, but the alien motioned for her to stop. “Very good, S’Amleng. There are many who would meekly take the punishment, but you fought back, even if you did not fight well. I will authorize your transfer to a warrior training unit. In time, you will become a warrior, S’Amleng, or you will die,” the alien said, leaving the room.

Veranda pounded the walls furiously, rage coursing through her until she sank wearily to her knees. “What have you done to me?” She screamed before finally passing out from the pain of the damage inflicted by the alien warrior.

***

The dark sky was beginning to turn to lighter shades of gray, the first light of morning barely puncturing the brush around Davis and Thornton as they stopped to rest for a moment, Thornton keeping a wary eye on the alien they had found. The alien had regained consciousness only an hour earlier, and seemed to be following the two humans as though in a daze.

“So where are we?” Thornton asked.

“Well, since there aren’t any satellites in orbit I can’t get you exact coordinates, but I think we’ve got another day or two before we reach the mountains,” Davis replied. He pushed back some of the brush until he could see the massive gray expanse of an ocean below the steep walls of the bluff he was standing on. He had heard the roar of waves crashing into the shore, but he had not realized that he was so close to the ocean until now. “If we stay close to the water we’ll come across the mountains eventually.”

“That’s very comforting,” Thornton remarked tartly, rubbing her tired feet. The alien seemed to be watching her with great interest, staring at her feet curiously. “What’s its problem?”

Davis shrugged, “It probably hasn’t seen human feet, just like we hadn’t ever seen alien feet until they attacked us.”

Thornton stretched her left leg out, wiggling her toes only inches before the alien’s eyes. “How do you like them?” She taunted the alien before pulling her foot back and covering it up with a sock and boot. The alien continued to stay at her dully until Thornton snapped, “Go stare at something else for a while!”

The alien backed off, its eyes turning to the vegetation around it. Davis shook his head, “You know, we need something to call it.”

“You want to name the alien?” Thornton asked skeptically.

“It’s better than saying, ‘Hey You!’ all the time.”

Thornton rolled her eyes, squatting down in front of the alien. “Hey, what’s your name?” She asked. The alien stared at her blankly, growling something incoherently. “I guess it can’t speak English anymore.”

“Maybe it just doesn’t want to talk to you,” Davis replied.

Thornton shrugged, then tapped herself on the chest. “Laurie.” She pointed to Davis, saying, “Alex.” Finally, she put a finger on the alien’s chest. The alien continued to stare stupidly at her, but when she repeated the procedure it seemed to understand. “Laurie, Alex…”

“S’Amleng,” the alien blurted out.

Thornton nodded, tapping herself once again. “Laurie. Alex. S’Am…” Thornton stopped, finding that she could not replicate the alien syllables. “Laurie. Alex. Sam.” She said the last name, with her finger on the alien’s chest.

“Sam,” S’Amleng repeated.

“Well I’ll be damned,” Davis breathed. Before the conversation could go any further, a shot hit the ground between Davis and S’Amleng. Turning, Davis could see a half-dozen black-armored aliens emerging from the brush. “Get to cover!” He shouted to Thornton. Thornton roughly shoved S’Amleng into the brush, Davis followed behind them, weaving to avoid being hit by a shot from one of the alien warriors.

Davis dove into the brush, rolling to hide himself behind a rock. He could see Thornton to his right, using a tree for cover, S’Amleng moaning in pain next to her, his body racked with spasms.

“Is he hit?” Davis asked, a shot whizzing over his head. Thornton shook her head, looking around helplessly for a weapon, but there was nothing that would be of any help around her. She saw S’Amleng sit up and gasped when she saw that his eyes had once again changed to brown mammalian eyes, the eyes blazing with fury. S’Amleng silently rose to his feet then charged forward, taking the six alien soldiers by surprise.

S’Amleng knocked one soldier to the ground, taking its weapon and using it as a club, he smashed the soldier in the head until it stopped moving. Before the others could shoot him, S’Amleng sprung atop another soldier, tearing off its helmet and pounding it furiously with his fists. One of the alien soldiers was about to line up S’Amleng for a shot to the head, but Davis fired a shot into the alien’s neck, killing it before it could shoot. S’Amleng grabbed another alien by the joints in the side of his armor, tossing the alien through the brush and over the bluff into the ocean as though the soldier were a rag doll. Without looking, S’Amleng lashed out with a spin kick, the blow landing squarely in the chest of one of the remaining soldiers. At the same time, S’Amleng’s tail slashed the remaining warrior in the face, before he wheeled back around and kicked the warrior in the jaw. Before either alien could recover, S’Amleng grabbed each by the neck, hurling them over the bluff, their screams fading to leave a heavy silence.

S’Amleng stared helplessly at Thornton and Davis for a moment, his entire body quivering with rage. “What have you done to me?” He screamed in English, tears coursing down his face until he sank to his knees. With a final tormented scream of pain, S’Amleng collapsed unconscious onto the ground, his body falling across a corpse.

Davis looked over at Thornton, who was down on her knees, sobbing and vomiting onto the ground. Davis nervously approached S’Amleng, carefully rolling the alien off of the dead body. Blood was splattered on S’Amleng’s body, but it was not from any wound. Davis left S’Amleng where he lay, quickly gathering weapons and equipment from the dead alien soldiers. Thornton finally appeared from the brush, carefully looking away from the carnage S’Amleng had wrought.

Davis handed her the weapons and supplies he had taken, saying quietly, “You take this stuff, I’ll carry him.” Thornton nodded, still dazed by the viciousness with which S’Amleng had killed the alien patrol. Davis knelt down beside S’Amleng, slinging one of the alien’s arms over his uninjured shoulder. Davis grunted as he got to his feet, S’Amleng’s unconscious body feeling like it weighed a ton. “Let’s go,” Davis said, dragging S’Amleng slowly beside him. Thornton took up the other side, thinking of how S’Amleng had been peacefully staring at her one moment, then exploding into a violent rage in the next. She wasn’t sure what to make of it, or if she could ever trust the alien again.

***

Laurants sat facing one of the transparent walls that gave him a view of almost the entire city of Telle. The sky was almost completely black, save for the glow of lights from the various buildings in the city. Laurants had seen many of the largest cities on Earth, but none had the breathtaking, almost organic look of the Rygan metropolis. The lights, while adding to the beauty, reminded Laurants of the emptiness of Telle. Millions of people used to live in the city, filling its streets at all hours, but now the streets were empty, only three beings left to gaze at the wonders of the place. Thinking back to what Lothgamm had said about the Rygans, it was hard to imagine that a people who built such a beautiful city could be wiped out by their own hands.

Lothgamm had left two hours ago, not telling Laurants or Shaw where he was going, only ordering both humans to stay where they were until he called for them. Laurants thought of what it must be like for the old Rygan to watch his race die out, to carry the burden of being the last and knowing that with his demise, the Rygan people were dead forever. Is this what will happen to Earth if we don’t stop the S’Parnians? Laurants wondered. Would the great cities of Earth soon lie as dormant as Telle, some lonely survivor gazing upon the ruins and knowing that the end was soon at hand?

Laurants’s dreary thoughts were shattered as the door opened. He saw Shaw enter, her smile quickly drowning his gloomy mood. “You couldn’t sleep either?” She asked.

Laurants shook his head, “I guess I’m too keyed up to sleep. It’s only a couple of hours before who knows how many aliens will come down here and try to finish us off, I wanted to enjoy what might be my last hours of life.”

Shaw took a seat beside Laurants, motioning towards the city. “This is such a beautiful place. The air is clean, there’s no noise, the weather is always perfect; I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather spend my final days.”

There was silence for a few moments, Laurants gathering the courage to begin, “There’s been something that has been bothering me throughout this entire mission, and with maybe only a few hours left, now is as good of time as any to ask, although you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”

Shaw turned to face him, her expression turning serious. “What is it?”

“Why did you pick me for this mission? Was it some kind of punishment for what happened aboard the training ship?”

Shaw stood up, pacing as she contemplated her response. She finally turned to Laurants, nodding to him. “I could tell you that crew selection was my prerogative, that I don’t have to tell you anything, but,” Shaw added before Laurants could interrupt, “I think you deserve an explanation.”

“I first heard about the incident on the training ship from an Alliance dispatch, initially I was appalled by what happened, until I checked with a friend in Command and heard the entire story. After that, I had a feeling that here was a very special person who had what it took to become a great Alliance officer, so I did some homework on you to confirm my hunch.”

“I dug into the archives and watched dozens of Academy hockey games to learn more about what kind of person you were. Even though I know nothing of the sport, I could see that not only were you a very gifted athlete, but also a leader as well. In every game I watched, I saw how you would take brutal punishment in order to help your teammates score, how you would stand up for your fellow Alliance players to opponents and officials, and how you never gave up, no matter how much your team was down by. Those were all qualities that I wanted in my crew, because those are the qualities of true leaders.”

“On the training ship, and again on the bridge of the Explorer, you demonstrated that you will one day be a great Alliance captain. I’ve seen my share of people who think that leadership means simply ordering people around, that being a leader is based solely on rank. In reality, being a leader means doing the right thing even in difficult situations. You demonstrated that ability on the ice, on the training ship, and on the Explorer.”

Shaw stopped, wiping tears from her eyes. “I chose you because I saw the kind of person you are, the person that I have grown to love.” Laurants, feeling numb from the shock, jumped to his feet, taking her in his arms.

“I love you too,” he whispered. Their lips met, the passion of the moment embracing them. Without a word, Shaw tossed away her uniform jacket, Laurants following suit until their unclothed bodies eased onto the floor.

For Laurants it was unlike anything he had ever experienced. He felt closer to Shaw than he ever had with any other woman. There was something he could not describe, some kind of magic between them that made him wish they could be together forever. There was nothing hurried, nothing insincere, only the pure joy from two souls coming together as one.

Lothgamm squinted, allowing his eyes to adjust to the bright light as the lift doors opened to an enormous cavern. At the far end of the cavern, its surface glinting dimly in the faint light, Lothgamm’s old ship waited. The vessel seemed to sense his approach, extending a gray boarding tube across the expanse of the cavern to the Rygan. Lothgamm waited patiently for the tube to come to a stop, then stepped inside, blue lights casting a dull glow throughout the tube. The tube started to retreat back to the ship, Lothgamm feeling the familiar anticipation of boarding the starship, a feeling he had not felt in decades. The tube ended in an airlock on the side of the ship, the airlock recognizing him instantly and beginning to cycle. The Rygan waited for the airlock to cycle, then stepped through the hatch into a set of white corridors that led him to an oval-shaped room packed with computers and technology beyond anything human designers could fathom.

Sitting at one computer, Lothgamm placed a finger into an outlet, feeling a charge run through his body as the computer activated and interfaced with him. In a matter of seconds the computer ran through hundreds of commands, the terminals in the room suddenly coming to life. Finally, after another minute, Lothgamm took his finger from the outlet, feeling weak for a moment as his body disengaged from its telepathic link to the computer. Looking around the room, Lothgamm mumbled, “It won’t be long now, my old friend.”

Lothgamm went the way he had come, emerging onto one of the city’s main streets. He could sense that the S’Parnians were close and knew that the time was almost at hand. It was a moment he had prepared for over the past thirty years, a moment that he had hoped would not be necessary, but it was apparent that it would be.

Reaching out to locate the two humans, Lothgamm nearly lost his footing, the power of their emotions coming close to overwhelming him. Without seeing what they were doing, he knew what the humans were up to, shaking his head sadly. “She cannot be yours Jack, a greater destiny awaits her,” he whispered to himself, knowing that there was nothing he could say to Laurants to steer the young ensign away from pursuing his relationship with Shaw. What is fated to happen will happen, Lothgamm thought, trying to focus on the coming battle.

***

Rosaro awoke to a bright light shining in her eyes. Her vision was blurred at first, but as it came into focus, she could see the smaller of the two aliens who had interrogated her come into the room. The alien took her face in its hands, applying some kind of solution to the dried blood on her face. “What are you doing?” Rosaro asked hoarsely, her throat dry since she had been given no food or water the entire time aboard the alien ship.

“S’Olonny does not want you to be half-dead when he fights you, so I am repairing the damage that the brute did to your face. I would have liked to interrogate you myself, to pry the information from your mind, but now that will never happen.” Dabbing at Rosaro’s cheek roughly, S’Tallen finished his work. He motioned to a pair of guards outside the door, the guards removing Rosaro’s restraints, dragging her to her feet. “The duel will take place in a cargo bay emptied for this reason and will be broadcast to the entire crew of this vessel as well as your companions in captivity.”

Whatever the alien had applied to her face, it had made the entire left side numb, so that she could not reply to S’Tallen’s comments. The guards slapped restraints onto her hands, one staying ahead and the other behind as she was marched towards the cargo bay where the fight was to be held. It seemed like an endless maze of corridors, Rosaro’s mind racing for some way out, some way to avoid a duel she knew she would lose, but she could find no way out. Her options finally ran down to zero as the door to the cargo bay opened, the guards taking off Rosaro’s restraints, then shoving her through the door.

S’Olonny stood in the center of the darkened cargo bay, patiently waiting for her to approach. Taking a deep breath, Rosaro strode to where S’Olonny waited, trying to hide her fear from the alien warrior. S’Olonny growled something, then handed Rosaro a sheathed sword and belt. S’Tallen’s voice boomed from some hidden speaker, “The weapon he gives you is the S’Zai, the weapon used by S’Parnian warriors for generations in battle. When the signal is given, you will draw your blade and the fight will begin.”

Rosaro strapped the belt around her waist, taking a few paces back away from S’Olonny. Her hand rested against the cool hilt of the S’Zai, waiting to free it from its sheath. S’Olonny nodded to her, then made a chopping motion with his right hand. The lights in the cargo bay dimmed so that Rosaro could only see the hulking alien warrior. “Draw!” S’Tallen shouted. Rosaro quickly took the blade from its sheath, surprised by how light the sword was. She took it in two hands, glancing for a moment at the long blue crystal blade of the S’Zai.

Swordfighting had been taught only as part of the basic hand-to-hand combat drills Rosaro had learned fifteen years ago, since then she had not seen any blade longer than six inches in combat. She had used knives in her youth with the Mexico City street gang she had run with, and had used a knife often enough in combat, but that was far removed from going up against an experienced master of the sword like S’Olonny. Stretching back in her memory, Rosaro could remember the defensive position her instructor had showed her and his only advice. “Stay back and wait for an opening to attack, let the opponent wear himself down, then strike back when he is weak.”

It was advice that was hard to follow as S’Olonny’s first swing struck Rosaro’s blade like a clap of thunder. Rosaro fought to keep her grip on the sword, edging backwards to give herself more room. S’Olonny sensed his opponent’s hesitation, charging forward with his blade held high to rattle her. At the last moment, S’Olonny swung the blade to the left side, trying to strike Rosaro’s exposed flank, but the human was just quick enough to deflect the blow.

In the tiny room holding the other human captives, Cromwell shouted, “This isn’t fair! Manny doesn’t know how to swordfight! She’s going to be killed!”

“Just like the rest of us,” Klein murmured under his breath. The initial cheers for Rosaro had quickly worn off when it became apparent just how badly outclassed she was. The humans watched Rosaro give more and more ground, narrowly parrying S’Olonny’s forceful strikes. As the one-sided duel continued, some of the humans turned away, not wanting to watch Rosaro’s end.

Rosaro felt the tip of the blade just nick her left thigh, but she ignored the pain, weakly swinging her own blade, which was easily blocked by S’Olonny. She could see that the alien warrior was not tiring, if anything he was becoming stronger while she was barely able to lift her own blade. Sweat poured out of every pore, stinging her eyes, but she did not have the luxury of time to wipe it away. Instead, she took another step back, ceding more of the cargo bay to S’Olonny and leaving herself with very little room left.

Scanning the cargo bay, Rosaro tried to find some way of escape before S’Olonny overpowered her. Fighting off another blow, she saw a stack of cargo crates piled against the wall in preparation for the duel. Even in the dim light, she could make out some kind of vent just above the crates. She had no idea if the vent would lead anywhere, but it was better than waiting for S’Olonny to finish her off.

Planting her feet, Rosaro deliberately left her guard open, guessing that S’Olonny would see the opening and try to take advantage. Her hunch turned out to be correct, the alien warrior put all of his weight into a killing blow aimed at her open side. The green blade whistled through the air, but just as it was about to slice into Rosaro’s midsection, she dropped to the floor. The momentum from the mighty swing turned S’Olonny around, although he quickly rebounded, assuming a defensive stance to block a blow that never came. He howled in rage as he watched Rosaro tear across the cargo bay, her S’Zai sheathed as she scrambled up the pile of crates.

“Coward!” S’Olonny screamed, running as fast as he could to catch up, but Rosaro was too quick for him. She reached the top of the pile then pulled her S’Zai, using its blade to slice the vent open. S’Olonny saw her make a gesture with the middle finger of her free hand, then disappear into the vent.

S’Olonny tried to follow, but as he reached the top of the pile, it was obvious he was too large to fit into the vent. “Where does this go?” S’Olonny shouted into his communicator.

“It looks like it is in the primary ventilation system, which runs the length of the ship,” S’Segar replied.

“Can we seal the system off?”

“We can isolate the areas closest to you, but the creature may not even be in the shafts by now.”

“Search the entire ship! I want this coward found and brought to me so that I may finish what I have started!” S’Olonny climbed down from the crates, storming out of the cargo bay. Wherever you have gone to, I will find you, S’Olonny thought angrily.

On the bridge, S’Segar shifted nervously, wondering if his commander had gone mad. “I am sending teams through the entire ship, scanning the interior of the ship for any sign of her.”

“Good, contact me the moment there is a sighting.” S’Olonny cut off the transmission, tapping an access code to gain entrance to one of the ship’s maintenance tunnels. The tunnels, running the length of the collection vessel, allowed repair crews to easily access the interior systems of the ship. Getting down onto all fours, S’Olonny began to crawl through the tunnel, thoughts of vengeance burning in his mind. I will find this coward, then I will slay it.

The vent had turned out to be some kind of air shaft that appeared to be Rosaro’s ticket to freedom. That was until she ran into a metal screen sealing off the shaft. Struggling to free her S’Zai, Rosaro tried to cut the grate open, but it refused to yield to the crystalline blade. Sighing, Rosaro sheathed the sword, then doubled back to an intersection in the shaft, looking for some way out. Although she was not certain where the other humans were being held in relation to the cargo bay, she had to try to free the others.

Continuing her crawl down the shaft, Rosaro stopped, hearing the clanking of many armored footsteps below her. She held her breath, trying not to make a sound that might give away her position. She heard the footsteps diminish into the distance, then frantically resumed her way down the ventilation shaft. There has to be somewhere I can exit without anyone noticing me, she thought, but looking ahead she could see no sign of another grate that might allow her to make her way out. Cursing to herself, Rosaro kept going.

S’Olonny stopped his crawl through the maintenance tunnel as his communicator beeped. “What is it?” He demanded.

“We have located it, sir,” S’Segar announced happily.

“Where?”

“In the ventilation shaft, Section 143.”

S’Olonny made a mental note of the location, scratching his chin in thought. “Excellent. I want to steer it into Storage. Make certain to open only those barriers to allow it to find its way there. Is that undertood?”

“Sir, are we not risking damage to the storage tanks and equipment?”

“Never mind that! Do as you are ordered!” S’Olonny terminated the connection, pushing himself forward. When his enemy found its way to the storage chamber, he would be waiting, then he would finish what he had started.

Another dead end, Rosaro thought angrily, turning back the way she had come. She stopped at an intersection in the shaft, taking a moment to think things through. She had already tested the S’Zai blade against the walls of the shaft, there was no way to make her own hole, so she would have to find an opening somewhere. Feeling like a lab rat in a maze, Rosaro tried another shaft, which she followed until it ended at another intersection. Two of the four ducts in the intersection were closed off, giving Rosaro only one option.

She crawled along the shaft, a nervous feeling in her stomach as she went. It almost seemed like someone was trying to steer her along, leaving open only those barriers that would shepherd her to where she was supposed to go. Unable to do anything but wait in the shafts until she was found, Rosaro could see no real alternative. Maybe she was being herded along, or maybe it was just her imagination.

Her long crawl through the ventilation shafts finally ended when she located a grate just like the one that she had entered through. Maneuvering her S’Zai in position, Rosaro sliced through the grate, clearing just enough room for her to slide through. She emerged on a narrow ledge overlooking a cavernous room. A tangled maze of cables and pipes snaked down to five hourglass-shaped containers, two of the seven-story containers were completely full of a clear liquid, their surfaces shimmering with rainbow-colored light while the remaining three containers appeared to be empty.

Rosaro studied the tangled web of pipes and cables, looking for some route of escape. She saw catwalks surrounding the midsection of each of the tanks, following the catwalks with her eyes, she spotted a series of doors around the chamber. One of those is my ticket out of here, she thought. Now all she had to do was find a way to navigate the pipes and cables down to one of the catwalks below.

Rosaro grabbed a thick black cable, carefully moving hand-over-hand along the cable, trying not to look down at the nothingness that seemed to descend into infinity. The soles of her boots finally scraped against something hard, glancing down, she could see that it was an olive-colored pipe. Keeping her hands on the cable, Rosaro walked the length of the pipe, pausing to find a way down to the catwalk.

While she tested the various cables around her to see which would hold her weight, she felt the pipe vibrate beneath her feet, threatening to throw her off of the tube. Before Rosaro could turn, blinding pain lanced through both of her legs, then the appendages went completely numb. Rosaro reached up, holding onto the cable over her head for dear life, but something grabbed her from behind, pulling her free from her lifeline and holding her in the open air. She dangled over the abyss for several long moments, then was turned around to face the alien warrior she had fought the duel against.

S’Olonny’s eyes burned with the fire of a thousand suns, the small nostrils on his face blowing out air like a raging bull about to charge. The maintenance tunnels had led him right into the upper area of the storage chamber, where he had found the vermin scurrying along the bio-energy pipes, looking for some way to flee his vengeance. It was only now that he wished that he had learned more of the barbarian tongue from S’Tallen, if only so that he could let the creature know just what he was going to do to its comrades now.

Rosaro stared in terror at S’Olonny’s face, her head starting to spin when she saw that his green S’Zai blade was coated with her blood. Craning her neck slightly, she could see where he had hamstrung her with the blade, so that even if she could find some way to escape his grasp, there was no way for her to flee. Never before had she felt so helpless, so completely impotent, unable to save herself or her friends.

For several horrible moments, Rosaro only stared into S’Olonny’s orange eyes, hoping for some sign of redemption, some flicker of mercy, but his eyes had turned as cold as the surface of Pluto. S’Olonny drew Rosaro close, his eyes boring into her soul with nothing but hatred. “Die,” he hissed, hurling Rosaro from the pipe.

Rosaro screamed as she flailed in the air, desperately looking for some way to stop her fall, but there was nothing around her. She looked down, seeing the bottom of one of the tanks approaching her quickly. Her screaming stopped, an almost tranquil feeling settling over her. Watching the glowing surface of the tank approach, Rosaro spent the last moments of her life thinking of the friends and family she would soon meet on the other side. Slamming into the tank at well over a hundred miles per hour, Rosaro was killed on impact.

S’Olonny turned away after seeing Rosaro’s broken body lying on the surface of the tank, climbing up the pipes until he found the maintenance tunnel he had entered through. The dishonorable worm had not given S’Olonny the information he wanted, which meant he would have to find another. This time, there will be no games, he thought. These creatures are below contempt, they will give me what I want or die. Activating his communicator, S’Olonny growled, “Send a repair crew to the Number 3 tank to clean up the mess before the bio-energy supply is tainted by its cowardice.” No matter how many more of them have to die, they will tell me what I want to know.

Chapter Seven

2007-06-12T13:09:00.001-07:00

Chapter Seven

Laurants woke up slowly, vaguely aware of an ache in his left shoulder. He sat up gradually, his entire body feeling stiff. Moving his limbs experimentally, Laurants could see that nothing was broken. Turning his focus to the scenery around him, Laurants gasped in shock at what he saw.

He was in a room of silver metal walls, thick blue carpet, and a comfortable burgandy mattress. Stepping over to one wall, Laurants touched the cool metal surface only to reel back in surprise as the wall suddenly turned transparent, revealing a wondrous sight. Buildings of almost any size and shape, from traditional rectangular shapes to swirling conical figures, rose high into the air, their surfaces dark against the yellow-gray sky. There were lights on all over the huge city that sprawled for as far as Laurants could see, yet there appeared no vehicle or pedestrian traffic.

Where the hell am I? Laurants wondered. There had been no cities on the surface of the planet, certainly nothing of this size could go unnoticed. The last thing he could remember was jumping from a cliff towards a mountain on the other side of the gap, but instead of his claws tearing into solid rock, they had caught nothing but air. He could remember landing in darkness on something very hard, but he blacked out before he could try to find a light to see where he was. Could I have died in that fall? Could this be the afterlife? Laurants wondered.

A gravelly voice suddenly spoke from behind Laurants in a language that Laurants quickly recognized from his youth as Latin. It took Laurants a moment to roughly translate what he had heard as, “You are not dead.” Turning around slowly, Laurants faced whomever had spoken.

Standing in the doorway was a tall being, at least seven feet tall, most closely resembling a cat in its appearance. It had a slightly oblong face covered in short white fur to its large green eyes, with dark brown fur above the eyes that were crowned by two small, pointed ears. Twin white mustaches drooped from a small snout, while white hair dangled from the back of the being’s head to its waist.

Fumbling in his pocket for a compad, Laurants activated the translator on the machine so that he could communicate with the creature before him. “Who are you?” Laurants asked.

The feline being raised a white-furred, four-fingered hand, tapping its chest with a short claw. “I am Lothgamm, I did not intend to intrude upon your inner thoughts.”

Looking about him, Laurants asked, “There was another like me, where is she?”

“She is in the next room, I am afraid she has not yet recovered from her injuries. It should not be much longer before she is completely healed.”

Studying the being calling itself Lothgamm, Laurants could not tell if there was any sort of weapon hidden under the dark blue robes it was wearing. He decided that the best thing would be to find out more information before attempting any kind of escape. “Where am I?”

“You are in the city of Telle, it is the last great city of Rygan.”

“I don’t understand. Our ship didn’t detect any cities in any of our scans. How can a city this large be on the surface and not be detected?”

Lothgamm made a sort of stuttering hiss that Laurants realized was a chuckle. “This city was not detected because it is not on the surface.”

“What? If it’s not on the surface, how can there be that sky…”

Lothgamm waved a hand, cutting Laurants off. “The sky is merely an illusion, designed to keep inhabitants from feeling too claustrophobic. We are actually buried under one hundred feet of rock.”

“That’s amazing,” Laurants stammered. “How many people live in this city?”

“One.”

“One? But you just said…”

“At one time over three million Rygans lived in Telle, but now I am the last. I am, in fact, the last on all of Rygan.”

“Rygan? Is that what this planet is called?”

“Yes,” Lothgamm replied simply.

“The language you’re using, is that the native Rygan language?”

“No, of course not. It is the predominant language of your people when Rygan observers last visited your world two millennia ago. I trust that this information is now out-of-date?”

Two thousand years ago? Laurants thought back to his history lessons. That would place it at the height of the Roman Empire. Of course, he thought, Latin was the language spoken by the Romans. “That’s right, but if you don’t know my language, then how could know what I was thinking before you came into the room?”

“I did not know the words, but I could feel the emotions. Emotions frequently speak louder than words.”

“So how did you…”

“Enough, I sense that your comrade is awakening. I will explain everything to both of you.” Waving towards Laurants, Lothgamm continued, “Follow me.” Part of one wall opened, Laurants following Lothgamm down a short hall to a room identical to the one he had found himself in. Shaw was lying on a mattress, slowly sitting up. She jumped to her feet when she saw Lothgamm come through the door.

Seeing Laurants, Shaw seemed relieved and asked, “Jack, what’s going on?”

***

S’Revlar dangled from a cable, slowly making his way down the mountainside. He reached out with a guantleted hand, touching the rocky exterior of the mountain to make certain that it was, in fact, a solid slope. The S’Parnian scout had gone down about a hundred feet, yet so far he had seen no way for his quarry to have disappeared. There were no markings on any rocks to indicate where the aliens might have struck, nor were there any caves, cracks, or crevices that might have hidden them from view. In short, the aliens had simply vanished into thin air.

S’Revlar continued doggedly down the slope, knowing that he had to at least be able to explain how these two aliens had escaped. He could not return to the ship without an explanation, or he would be disgraced, reassigned to some lesser duties until the collection vessel returned to S’Parni, where S’Revlar would be dishonorably discharged, no bio-energy pension to provide for his family. He could not let that happen, so he would have to find the two fugitive aliens, no matter the cost.

Stopping at what he thought was the location where the aliens had vanished, S’Revlar closely studied the sensor readings of the area. There was nothing unusual, the same density of rock and snow existed at this point as on most of the slope. Putting a hand against the surface of the rock, S’Revlar pushed, but nothing happened. Cursing to himself, S’Revlar continued down another hundred feet, but still was unable to locate anything. He finally stopped when the cable ran out, then began the slow climb back up the slope. As he slowly eased up the rope, he knew there was only one more option left available to him, but it was potentially very dangerous.

S’Revlar carried with him a pair of powerful explosives that could easily tear open a hole in the mountainside to determine if there were any kind of openings or secret pathways that would have allowed the aliens to create the illusion of disappearing from sight. While carving a large hole in the side of the mountain, the explosion could easily cause an avalanche above or cause parts of the mountain above to collapse. He and his scouts could be killed while the chance of success, according to his sensor readings, was remote.

Thinking about it for a minute, S’Revlar came to a decision. No matter what the risk was, he had a duty to do everything possible to locate the two aliens, a duty that could not be cast aside because of the risk involved. Looking across the gap to the other side, S’Revlar knew that the best chance for survival would be to have his troops cross the chasm and wait on the other side. There was a good chance that the explosion would create an avalanche or collapse on the other mountain as well, but it was a smaller chance, especially for an expert like S’Revlar who knew where to place the explosives to lessen the impact.

Climbing back up to where his scouts waited, S’Revlar outlined his plan. As expected, he received no objections. Setting the cable to allow his troops to cross, S’Revlar began to set the timer for the explosives. He allowed at least five minutes for himself to swing across the gulf and find cover before the two bombs went off. Once all of his scouts were across, S’Revlar lowered himself to a point just below where the aliens had vanished. He used a small cutting tool to make a hole to place the two explosives, then armed the weapons. He climbed up to the top, readying himself to swing across the chasm. Rocking back and forth, S’Revlar built up speed, then pushed himself away from the mountainside as hard as he could. He swung through the air, waiting until the apex of his swing to release himself from the rope and fly towards the cliff. S’Revlar smashed into the hard-packed snow of the cliff, quickly rolling to his feet. He scampered up the snowy ground, heading for the cluster of boulders where he and his troops had camped the previous night. Tucking himself between the boulders, S’Revlar was glad to see that all of his troops had followed his orders and were safely shielded by the rocks.

With thirty seconds to spare, S’Revlar thought back to what he had saw and tried to think of any explanation for the disappearance of the two aliens. Replaying the scene again and again in his mind, he could come up with no answer, so he knew that the explosion would have to show him something he had missed, something that had been hidden to him. I may be old, but no so old as to have lost my mind, he thought, waiting for the sound of the blast.

***

Arsa Veranda was trapped in limbo, feeling her mind slip away moment by moment. She could see images flash past her, images that she knew were memories of her own life, but they went by too quickly for her to latch on to any. She reached out, willing her hands to catch something, anything and hold on to it. Finally, her hand seemed to touch something, seemed to glow for a moment, then the images swirling around her coalesced into one scene.

It was, Veranda realized, a very familiar scene. Around her were plain oak-paneled walls with stained glass windows containing various Christian designs. A small altar made of dark wood was just ahead of her, an old priest suddenly beckoning to her from the altar. Looking down, Veranda remembered the wedding dress she was wearing, she could remember trying it on and trying to keep Ted from seeing her in the gown. She turned her gaze from the dress to the pews behind her, all were crammed with people: her adopted parents, friends from the Academy, even a few of her friends from her brief stay at Oxford University.

The priest at the altar beckoned to her once again, this time she slowly stepped forward until she had climbed to the step just below the altar. Her husband was waiting at the altar and took her hand. The wedding ceremony went off without a hitch, the priest ending the ceremony by saying, “Having dedicated yourselves to each other you are now ready to begin your new life together. Ted, you may now kiss Arsa to seal your love for each other forever.”

Veranda turned to kiss Ted, but everything around her was turning black, slowly fading from her sight. “No!” She screamed, trying to reach out to grasp Ted, but his arm turned to vapor, followed by the rest of his body. Veranda was left alone in the dark, the wedding dress turning to ragged shreds, until it too had faded to nothingness.

Lost in the darkness once again, Veranda could suddenly feel another presence, another mind crying out against the lonely void that it was trapped in. Veranda reached out, trying to touch this other being, hoping that maybe it could explain what was happening to her. She could feel her consciousness brush against the alien presence, then her entire body was wracked with spasms. She fell to her knees, wanting to scream, but unable to make any sounds. She could only watch in horror as her entire body began to change.

Her flesh slowly began to turn from its natural dark brown color to a dark green, the texture turning from smooth to dry and scaly. Her hands swelled in size, her middle finger disappearing, then black claws burst from the ends of her fingers. Similar claws came out of her large, webbed toes, then Veranda was doubled over in pain once again while a long tail snaked out from just above her rear end and a thin, smooth shell formed on her back. What is happening? She wondered. I can’t be one of them! I’m not an alien!

Veranda could see more images flying past her, only these images were strange, as though they were the memories of someone else. She reached out experimentally with a long, clawed finger, her entire hand glowing for a brief moment, then she found herself in a strange place that she could not quite remember.

She felt something touch her on the hard shell of her back, looking up she could see an alien warrior towering over her. The huge alien was clad in blue armor, some kind of sword at its side and fire in its orange eyes. “You! Rise to take the sacrifice!” The alien warrior growled.

“Me?” Veranda asked helplessly, feeling unsure of what to do.

The alien yanked her to her feet, growling, “Yes, you fool. When you woke today you were nothing more than a sniveling, cowardly worm, but today on the field of battle you became a warrior. You slew your first enemy, now, to show the war gods that you have dedicated your life to them, you must sacrifice your foe.” The warrior gestured towards a large gray creature lying on a brown boulder. The alien warrior handed her a short knife made entirely of some kind of crystal. Veranda took the knife’s cool hilt in her hand, unsteadily holding it over the corpse lying on the boulder.

Veranda nervously looked around her, seeing thousands of alien soldiers standing in a circle around her. Their faces were obscured by the dark purple sky, but Veranda could feel their eyes on her. Letting out a hiss, Veranda plunged the knife quickly into the midsection of the creature, watching as olive blood oozed from the wound. For a moment Veranda froze in hesitation, feeling the eyes of those around her prodding her to continue with the ritual. Veranda slowly began to slice up the creature’s chest, stopping as she reached the thing’s neck. Feeling cold, Veranda handed the knife back to the alien warrior.

The alien warrior proudly tapped her on the shoulders. “Today, Foot Soldier S’Amleng, you have become a S’Parnian warrior. The bio-energy of this beast will be used to feed your brethren on S’Parni. Countless lives have been saved by your heroic actions, proving you worthy of the gods’ love.” The alien warrior nodded solemnly to Veranda, she nodded back before stumbling away from the disemboweled corpse. Looking up at the dark purple sky, Veranda could see dark blue clouds spinning, some merging into the forms of her husband and friends from the Alliance military. Veranda fell to her knees into some kind of gooey substance that was neither liquid nor solid. She could see a reflection in the surface of the gel, the reflection of a dark green alien, olive blood splattered about its naked body. Veranda reached out towards the reflection, a clawed finger plunging into the finger of the alien reflection.

“No, I am not one of you!” Veranda screamed at the sky, smashing her fists into the reflection to obliterate it. The pieces of the reflection slowly merged together until it was whole once more. “What is happening to me?” Veranda whimpered, collapsing into the gooey substance, her world going dark.

***

Crouching in the dense weeds, Davis watched as another alien transport replaced one that had just taken off. Using his binoculars to get a better look, he could see red-clad aliens boarding one set of transports while another set of shuttles unloaded mustard-clad aliens. The mustard-armored aliens fanned out over the marsh, stopping at each corpse then moving to the next one. He was too far away to see exactly what the aliens were doing to the dead bodies, and there was no way for Davis to get a closer look without emerging from his hiding place.

He felt something nudge him, and turned to see Thornton motioning to him impatiently. “Shouldn’t we be going before they catch us here?” She growled.

“Just a minute, I’m trying to see if I can find out what they’re doing.”

“They’re probably making sure that everyone is dead.”

“Maybe, they’ve already hauled off the wounded, why would they send a whole other crew for the dead?”

“It’s probably some ritual or custom,” Thornton replied testily. “We need to be moving into deeper cover before it gets light out.”

“We still have a couple of hours.”

“A couple of hours we could be using to put some distance between us and the aliens while they’re still cleaning up.”

Davis sighed, “All right, there probably isn’t much more to see anyway. Just keep down and try not to make any loud noises.”

Thornton nodded, getting down on all fours and moving cautiously into the weeds at the shore of the marsh. Davis followed behind her, ignoring the aches in his body from the battle, aches that he was only now beginning to feel and that would probably be much worse in a few hours. Thornton signaled for Davis to stop and pointed to a clump of brown weeds to her right that seemed to be moving. Davis nodded to her, pulling the pistol Thornton had given him from his belt just as a large, dark object shot out from the weeds.

Before Davis could let go with a shot, the object was past him, rolling to a stop in the mud. Davis cautiously crawled over to where the object lay, and it was obvious as he approached that it was an unclothed alien with its head buried in the mud. The alien was still alive, twitching and making odd moaning sounds that were muffled by the ground.

“Is it still alive?” Thornton asked as she came up to Davis’s side.

“Appears to be. I don’t know if it’s wounded or not.”

“It doesn’t seem like it has any equipment with it, so let’s just get out of here before it can report us to its superiors.”

Davis nodded, turning to go when the alien suddenly rolled over, wiping the mud from its face. Raising his weapon, Davis decided that he would have to risk a shot, but the alien made no aggressive moves. It seemed to be staring past Davis as though he was not even there, then its orange reptilian eyes suddenly became brown mammalian eyes, like those of a human. “Help me,” the alien whispered in English. Its clawed arms reached forward, trying to latch onto Davis, but he pulled away. Tears formed in the alien’s brown eyes as it sagged towards the ground. “What is happening to me?” It whimpered before its entire body went limp.

The marsh was silent for a moment, then Davis heard the sound of a weapon powering. He turned his head to see Thornton pointing his pistol at the alien’s head, her finger on the trigger. Davis batted the gun away from Thornton’s hand just as the weapon fired, the shot harmlessly singeing some weeds. “You idiot!” Davis cursed, motioning towards the bay. “You’ve probably alerted them to our presence!”

“This thing is one of them!” Thornton shouted. “It’s most likely killed some of our friends, why should we let it live?”

“Didn’t you see what happened?” Davis shot back. “This alien can speak English, we have to find out why, then maybe then we can get some useful information from it.”

Thornton’s cheeks were flushed red with anger, but she nodded slowly. “All right, maybe it can be of some use, but if it tries anything, I’ll put a shot right in its brain.”

“No, you won’t,” Davis said with authority, taking the pistol from the mud. Davis pulled the alien from the mud, grunting in pain as he slung one of its arms around his shoulders. “Take the other side,” he said through gritted teeth. The alien’s weight sent stabs of agony through Davis, his injured shoulder throbbing from the effort.

Thornton put the alien’s right arm over her shoulder, Davis’s pain relenting a little. It took a few minutes to wrestle the alien through the mud, but once they got on more solid ground, it was easier to drag the alien between them. “I’m sorry about giving away our position,” Thornton muttered just loud enough for Davis to hear.

“It’s all right, no harm done.”

Thornton was quiet for a moment, then asked, “What do you suppose happened to this one?”

Davis shook his head. “I have no idea.”

***

S’Olonny stormed into S’Tallen’s lab, nearly sending the scientist tumbling from his chair at the sudden disturbance. “What are you doing here? There is very sensitive equipment…” S’Tallen began, but S’Olonny cut him off with a wave of his hand.

“I assume that you have found some way to communicate with these creatures, correct?”

“I have a basic grasp of their language, yes.”

“Excellent. You will translate for me so that I can interrogate the prisoners.”

“I am afraid I cannot leave the lab, I have very important experiments that require my attention.”

“I require your attention now, your experiments can wait,” S’Olonny gestured to the S’Zai at his hip before S’Tallen could protest. S’Tallen followed S’Olonny from the lab, trying to keep his anger from showing. His experiment was in the first stage of transformation, there were numerous things that could wrong, terminating his experiment before it could be completed. In spite of that, though, it was not worth his life. He could always obtain another specimen, but if he was killed, then all of his work would be finished, S’Olonny would see to that.

“I did not think it was your way to take prisoners,” S’Tallen said.

“No, but from the lack of other life on this world and their small number, there must be more of these creatures in this or another system. We may be able to locate other habitable worlds for collection.”

“They may not want to tell you where to go to exterminate their race,” S’Tallen pointed out sarcastically.

S’Olonny turned angrily on the scientist, “I will deal with that, you simply translate what I am saying.” S’Olonny punched the button to open the door to a small, dark room that was not familiar to S’Tallen. In the center of the room was a human, held to a metal chair by magnetic restraints. At the approach of the two S’Parnians, the human came to consciousness.

Rosaro opened her eyes slowly, the entire world made of blurs spinning about her. Gradually, things began to come into focus, millions of lights forming one point of light, highlighting the two aliens standing before her. One of the aliens was the one who had knocked her out during the battle in the swamps, while the other, who was at least a foot and a half shorter, she did not recognize. The larger alien grabbed Rosaro’s chin, forcing her head upright. He growled something in his own language, his eyes boring into Rosaro’s.

The smaller alien looked down at something that was vaguely similar to a compad, then spoke in English. “Captain S’Olonny thought you were a great warrior when you defeated his initial attack, but since your defeat in the swamplands he has decided that you are a puny creature, below his contempt.”

Rosaro was unfazed by the comment, staring into S’Olonny’s reptilian eyes to show him that she was not afraid. S’Olonny spoke again, finally letting go of Rosaro’s chin. “Despite being such a weak thing, he will let you live if you tell him where he might find more of your kind,” S’Tallen interpreted.

“Tell him that there are no more of my kind,” Rosaro replied. S’Tallen translated and for a moment there was an eerie silence. The calm was shattered by one of S’Olonny’s huge hands slapping Rosaro across the face, his claws tearing deep gashes in her left cheek. S’Olonny roared something, pacing angrily while he waited for S’Tallen to translate.

“He warns you not to play games with him. He knows that there were too few of you and not enough life on the planet to be an entire civilization. Tell him where your home planet is and he will spare you.”

Looking at S’Olonny, Rosaro knew that there was no sense hiding the reason the Explorer and Pioneer were in the system, and perhaps she could use it to fool the alien captain. “The mission of our two ships was to colonize the planet below. Our home planet was devastated by numerous natural disasters and wars, so we are here to create a new home. By now my home planet could be a barren wasteland.”

There was another pause while S’Olonny took in what S’Tallen translated, then S’Olonny hit Rosaro across the face again, this time his claws cutting almost to her cheekbone. Rosaro managed to hold in the scream she wanted to let out, but a look of agony was evident on her face. She could tell that S’Olonny was amused, while the other alien looked sick.

“He knows that if your world were really in such a condition there would have been more of your people here,” S’Tallen translated, then spoke without prompting. “Tell him what he wants or he will not stop until you and all of your people on this ship are dead.”

“I will not betray my planet, no matter what the price is!” Rosaro shouted, bracing herself for another slap across the face.

Instead, S’Olonny seemed calm, talking quickly to S’Tallen. The smaller alien finally translated, his voice flat. “S’Olonny believes that he may have misjudged you. If you will not tell him what he wants to know by force, then perhaps you can be made to talk by other means. Captain S’Olonny challenges you to honorable single combat to decide the matter. If he wins the duel, then you will give him the information he has requested. If you win the contest, then he will allow you and all those in his custody to go free.”

“I can’t gamble with the lives of my entire race,” Rosaro replied angrily.

S’Tallen did not translate Rosaro’s response, speaking to her directly instead. “If you do not accept his challenge, then he will find you dishonorable and kill all the others of your kind that are currently being held. S’Olonny will give you into my custody to torture the information from you,” the alien scientist stopped, seeming almost to smile. “I will find out what he wants to know, but I am afraid you will not survive long afterwards.”

Rosaro thought about it for a few moments, knowing that the duel was the only chance she had to save her troops and the remaining crew of the Explorer. Even if she lost the duel there was still no way that she would give the location of Earth to S’Olonny, she would make him kill her. Taking a deep breath, she nodded to S’Olonny. “Tell him that I accept.”

“Very well then. The duel will take place tomorrow, so that you may have some time to recuperate from your injuries.” Once S’Tallen had translated, both aliens turned and left the room, leaving Rosaro still strapped tightly into the chair. Closing her eyes, and feeling lightheaded from blood loss, Rosaro soon fell into a fitful sleep.

***

S’Revlar heard the sound of the explosives, but felt barely a tremor at his position. Stepping out of his hiding place, the S’Parnian scout could see that the powerful blast had barely made a dent in the mountain. No! S’Revlar thought angrily. It is not possible for the mountain to fully absorb the blast! By all of his calculations, a sizable hole should have been opened in the mountainside, but there was nothing more than a few small fissures just below the blast point.

Scanning the side of the mountain, S’Revlar stopped, trying to contain the joy he felt. The cracks in the side of the rock, while not big enough to fit through, did provide S’Revlar with an explanation for how his quarry had vanished, and why the bombs had not made the impact they should have. Through the fissures, S’Revlar could detect faint traces of energy, the kind of energy that most closely resembled the type used to make holoprojections. It was obvious now that what had appeared to be a mountain, with the texture and density to mimic solid rock, was actually an illusion that the enemy had used to cover their escape. Now that he knew what the illusion was, he knew how to defeat it.

Motioning to another of his scouts, he launched a cable into the side of the mountain, swinging across the chasm with ease. The cable was attached to the imaginary mountain, which would make what S’Revlar was about to do dangerous, but it was an acceptable risk to find out where his prey had fled to. He took a flat, black disc from the left hip of his armor, placing the disc against the rock. A light on the disc flashed green, an eight-foot section of the mountain suddenly vanishing to reveal a dark cavern.

The display in S’Revlar’s helmet brought up an infrared image of the cavern, a red blob of warmth just behind the wall ahead of the S’Parnian scout. Touching the wall, S’Revlar found it to be hard and damp like an ordinary rock. Using another of the disc-like devices, S’Revlar determined that this wall was actually made of stone. Studying the density of the material, S’Revlar located his cutting torch and called for the other scouts to join him. Even with all five torches, it would be several hours before he could cut a big enough hole through the rock to fit through. Activating his torch, S’Revlar quietly set to the grueling task, knowing that soon he would flush his quarry from whatever warren they had taken refuge in. You may have fooled me for a short time, but it only delayed the inevitable, now I will find you.

***

Lothgamm paced around the room nervously for a long minute, his hands clasped behind his back. Finally, he turned to face Laurants and Shaw. “My people long ago met the enemy you now face. It was over one thousand years ago that a Rygan exploration vessel discovered a planet nearly two-thirds covered by swamps. The dominant species below, reptilian creatures who called themselves S’Parnians, seemed to lack any kind of sophisticated technology, yet there was a source of energy on the surface more advanced than anything ever produced by Rygan scientists. It was some a great sphere, some kind of an energy matrix of unlimited power. It was clear that the S’Parnians did not have the skill or resources to produce such technology, nor was there any sign of who might have constructed such a remarkable object. Our scientists observed the planet for nearly a year, then finally returned to Rygan to continue their study of the energy matrix.”

Lothgamm paused for a moment, his moustaches twitching in agitation. “As I have explained, Rygans have telepathic abilities, sometimes this allows us to get a glimpse of the future. One of the scientists who returned from the S’Parnian planet claimed to have a disturbing vision. She said that she saw the end of Rygan: our great fleets destroyed, our cities reduced to dust, our colonies ravaged, our people dying by the millions. No one believed her, no one believed that our great civilization would ever end.” Lothgamm shook his head, “Sadly, everything she said came to pass.”

“For thousands of years Rygans explored the universe, seeking only knowledge. Our ships would observe planets from orbit, learning as much as possible, then move on. The knowledge we gained was passed on telepathically from one Rygan to an appointed heir at the time of death, so that everything we knew was carried on from one generation to the next. In time, we settled some uninhabited worlds to use as outposts to further our exploration. Our society flourished, prosperity touching every Rygan citizen.”

“Over four centuries after discovering the S’Parnian planet, the end of my people began. By this time there was a growing faction of Rygans, seeking to increase their wealth, who believed that the time for exploration was over, that we should begin campaigns of conquest against the inhabited worlds we had observed. This faction was relatively small, not possessing the military strength to oppose the remainder of the Rygan fleets. However, they did have enough forces under their command to raid a helpless world.”

“Unbeknownst to the Rygan parliament, a fleet of ships was dispatched to the primitive world of S’Parni. The rebel faction believed that they could find some way to use the power of the energy matrix on the planet to fuel their campaign for empire and to create weapons of mass destruction.”

“A Rygan scout vessel, its captain sensing that something was afoot in the area, encountered the rogue fleet nearly halfway to S’Parni and alerted our military commanders. A small force of Rygan ships, those closest to S’Parni, was assembled and sent to delay the rebels long enough for reinforcements to arrive. It was the first time in nearly ten thousand years that Rygans would raise arms against each other.” Lothgamm paused, but Shaw and Laurants were too mesmerized by his story to speak.

“The two fleets met over S’Parni, an intense battle raging for days. Finally, the rebels gained the upper hand, decimating those defending the freedom of the S’Parnians below. The rebels closed on the last ship, its captain making a fateful decision. Knowing that reinforcements would not arrive in time, the captain decided that the only way to end the conflict was to destroy the matrix below. The Rygan ship fired on the surface, destroying the matrix, which set off a cataclysm on the surface below. The rebels destroyed the last ship opposing them, then fled, but the damage had been done.”

“Instead of burning out, the flame of rebellion grew, enveloping the whole of Rygan civilization. For the next two centuries, Rygan worlds were ravaged, many razed to the last living being, others left without vital supplies, so that they faded slowly from existence. Enemies of the Rygan people, seeing an opportunity, grabbed dozens of colonies, the Rygan military too divided to strike back at the aggressors. The war that had until then stayed distant from Rygan itself, finally swept across the planet, wiping all life from the surface.”

Lothgamm stopped, a sort of sob escaping his throat. “I was young when the great cities of Rygan were destroyed. I was serving aboard the last warship of the Rygan fleet, the thousands of others had been eliminated after the centuries of warfare. All of us aboard the ship knew our civilization was doomed, the last outposts beset by disease and famine. We took aboard a few survivors, those that we able to take without risking the spread of various plagues, but there were no females capable of reproduction and few healthy children. Nevertheless, our ship returned to Rygan, to the wasteland that had once been our home.”

“We found no habitable cities on the surface, but a scouting party determined that the great underground city of Telle was still standing, though not even it had been spared from the effects of the war. The aquifers feeding the city’s rivers, lake, and waterfall had dried up, but with nowhere else to go, our ship put down and we began the process of rebuilding.”

“We found a handful of survivors clinging to life, they were able to tell us what had happened to the planet, how weapons of unimaginable destruction had been turned against our own people. Nothing was to grow again on Rygan for over a century, then the plantlife began to slowly rebuild, but nothing could save the Rygan people. For whatever reason, whether it was some kind of radiation or germ from the surface, or just Fate, the children that grew in the city were not able to reproduce. Those scientists that remained tried to find some way to breed more Rygans, but there was no hope. Slowly, over the last two centuries, those that repopulated the city died out.”

“I have spent the last thirty years here alone, waiting for the end. Now that you have arrived, I know that the end of my race is here.”

“What do you mean? We aren’t going to hurt you,” Laurants said.

“No, but the S’Parnians have come here at last, to the source of their troubles, although they do not know it. Their fate has led them here, where at last they will have their vengeance on the Rygan people for what we did to them. It is a price that will be paid in blood, my blood, but it will not stop their lust for carnage.”

“We can help you defend this city, perhaps we can even get you off of this planet…” Shaw began, but Lothgamm cut her off.

“You do not understand, our story has been written by the hand of fate before we are even born. Before the Rygans, S’Parnians, or your people were alive they were already dead. Nothing can change that.” Lothgamm stopped, his mouth curling into a smile reminiscent of the Cheshire Cat. “While my people may be dead, our knowledge will carry on for eons after my body goes cold. Our wisdom will be preserved to serve those that we have observed, who are now rising from the cradles of their home worlds to explore the vast universe for themselves.”

Shaw wanted Lothgamm to explain his last point, but he silenced her with a wave of his hand, his pointed ears seeming to stiffen. Lothgamm closed his eyes, his nose twitching. “Yes, they are coming,” Lothgamm said at last.

“Who?” Laurants asked.

“The S’Parnians sent to find you, they will be here in a few hours. We cannot let them report the location of this city to their superiors or all will be lost.” Lothgamm reached into his robes, pulling out a slim pistol. “We must prepare to meet our destiny.”

Chapter Six

2007-06-12T13:08:00.001-07:00

Chapter Six

Perched below an icy overhang, Shaw felt the cold winds licking every part of her body. The thick thermal coat around her torso, the heavy gloves on her hands, and the winter mask that left only her eyes visible were all designed for arctic conditions, but did little to make her warmer. A portable shelter had been included with the equipment Rosaro had given her, but there was nowhere to anchor the shelter to keep it from flying away in the high winds. Unless the winds died down, Shaw and Laurants would have to brave the cold through the night.

They had managed to climb up the face of the mountain just before nightfall, the overhang providing the best protection from the winds that was readily available. It would be several more days of hiking before she and Laurants could find the ExoArmors, if they survived the night. A portable heater and a pair of survival blankets were the only source of warmth, but neither was much help in the furious winds. The batteries in their thermal coats had only a few hours of charge left, she and Laurants could only use those sparingly over the days it would take to locate the ExoArmors.

Shaw looked across the heater to Laurants, who was shivering beneath his blanket and heavy coat. “Don’t worry, we’ll make it through this. With any luck, this is just a weather system that will clear up tomorrow,” Shaw said, expelling a misty breath and looking into Laurants’s eyes. “If it’s not, though, there’s something I need to know.”

“What?” Laurants asked uncomfortably.

“I need to know why you came.”

“Because of the importance of the mission, someone…”

“The real reason, Jack,” Shaw interrupted.

“I guess it’s hard to say,” Laurants thought for a moment, trying to put his feelings into coherent words. “I…I didn’t want you to die alone. I don’t know, maybe that sounds crazy.”

“No, it’s very noble.” Shaw shook her head, “I shouldn’t have let you come and put yourself in danger like this.”

“There really isn’t anywhere on this planet that wouldn’t be dangerous right now,” Shaw knew that Laurants was joking, but she still felt a sting in her heart. It was her fault that they were in this mess.

“I know,” she said quietly. “But as your commanding officer, I’m not supposed to let you risk your life foolishly.”

“I volunteered…”

“It doesn’t matter!” Shaw snapped. “I am responsible for my crew, no matter what and…I failed them.”

“There was no way to know about the aliens, about their weapons. You did everything you could.”

“Do you think that makes a difference?”

“No, I know that it doesn’t.” Laurants took a deep breath before he continued, “I was sixteen when my mother committed suicide. I never saw it coming, because my parents always seemed so happy together. It was only afterwards that I found out my father had been cheating on her for three years. He was the only doctor in Wolf Bluff, so it was easy enough to call home and say that there was some medical emergency that he had to attend to.”

“I don’t know how my mother got suspicious, but about two years before she died, she found my father in bed at a motel outside of town with a waitress not much older than I was. My parents’s marriage had always seemed like a storybook romance, so my mother must have been absolutely heartbroken when she found out about the affair. Around my sister and I everything was still Happily Ever After, my parents had agreed to keep the whole thing a secret, but it had to be killing my mother inside. Then, one day, she couldn’t stand the lie anymore.”

“My mother had been contemplating suicide for two years, but I never saw a single sign of it. Maybe there was no way for me to know, maybe there was nothing I could have done, but everyday I tell myself that if I hadn’t been so focused on school, on hockey, on girls, maybe she would still be alive. Even though I didn’t cause her pain, driving her to take her own life, I still feel responsible every single day.” Laurants stopped, chipping away frozen tears that had pooled along his eyes. He turned away in embarrassment, but she could hear his nearly-choked sobs.

She stared at Jack Laurants, but it was in a whole new way. No longer did she see a young subordinate, an officer under her command. She saw a man who had convinced her to leave the burning bridge of the Explorer, who had volunteered to accompany her on a suicide mission, and who had just bore his soul to her so that she might feel better about her failures. She had never in her life seen anyone so unselfish, so…heroic.

He was the most extraordinary young man, and she couldn’t help but to feel something stir within her. It was a long-dormant impulse that had she had not known since she and Nathan Nichols had parted ways so many years ago. It was a feeling that she had thought she would never have again, a feeling that she wouldn’t allow herself to have again. Yet after all this time it had returned to her on an icy overhang of an alien mountain, when she could either die at the hands of alien warriors or Mother Nature before the next morning.

Before she knew it, her hands gently turned Laurants’s head towards her, then pulled the winter mask up above his mouth. She flipped the bottom of her own mask up, their lips pressing together, their arms wrapping around each other, their bodies coming together as one. The moment seemed to last forever, a moment that Shaw never wanted to end, but something in her forced her eyes open. She suddenly realized what she was doing, as though she were emerging from a trance to find herself engaged in a passionate kiss. Shaw jerked backwards, pulling her mask back tightly over her face. Laurants nearly pitched forward from the abrupt change of position, but he quickly recovered and adjusted his mask before the icy winds could do any damage to his exposed skin.

“I’m sorry, that was inappropriate,” Shaw said weakly. “I don’t know what happened to me.”

“Don’t apologize…I liked it.”

“Jack, look, it’s not right. I’m your superior officer.”

“There are no ranks up here, remember?”

Shaw stared into Laurants’s eyes, the feeling that had driven her to kiss him returning. They were alone up here, and there was a high probability that they would not survive the next day, so what harm could there be? She remembered all those lonely nights on the Explorer, when she had longed for a body next to her in bed. For so long she had repressed her desires, hidden them in some dark place of her heart, but now that they had come back to the surface she did not want to put them away again. Finally, she pulled her mask off completely, tossing it onto the ground next to her. She smiled, whispering, “No regrets.”

She pressed her body against Laurants, feeling all the years of pent-up emotion coming to the fore. She was about to risk taking off her clothes when ice crunched above them. Shaw pulled away from Laurants, dousing the portable heater. She put a finger to her lips, signaling him to be absolutely quiet. Laurants nodded, tugging his mask over his head. Looking around the small camp, Shaw found her rifle, making sure that the cold had not ruined the weapon. The footfalls seemed to stop, as though whoever was above sensed that the two humans were close by. Shaw and Laurants were frozen in place, not daring to move for fear that any slight noise might alert the intruder. After several tense moments the footsteps continued, away from the overhang.

Shaw breathed a heavy sigh of relief, “Well, it looks like we’re not alone up here.”

***

S’Revlar reached out, stopping one of his scouts just shy of the end of a cliff. The scout gratefully backed away from S’Revlar, stammering something about trying to be more careful. It was the third such incident of the night, the icy winds whipping up snow to blind the sensors the scouts carried to allow them to see at night. Still, the scouts trudged onward, not because of a sense of duty, but because they had yet to locate any sort of dry place to rest for the night.

S’Revlar refused to show it before his charges, but he was exhausted from fatigue and the cold air leaking through the seams of his armor. At one time S’Revlar may have been able to better handle the frigid climate, but since he had shed his adult skin nearly a year ago, he found that changes in temperature irritated him more than before. After hours in the icy air, S’Revlar’s joints had frozen to where he had to will himself to move. He cursed the stubborn pride that made him come on this mission.

There was a beep in S’Revlar’s helmet, causing him to signal his scouts to come to a stop. His sensors, through the terrible conditions, had detected a very faint sign of bio-energy. S’Revlar looked about him, unable to see anything that might give off such a signature. He forced himself to the edge of the cliff, looking down the side of the mountain, but he was again unable to see any signs of life. “Leave a signal buoy here, we will come back to this place in the morning,” S’Revlar commanded. One of the scouts nodded, dropping a pyramid-shaped device to the ground. The tiny pyramid would give off a signal to indicate where S’Revlar had detected the trace bio-energy signature.

S’Revlar hoped that morning would bring an end to the fierce winds, but if nothing else, the dawn would provide more light to search by. While his helmet’s display had the nightvision equipment, S’Revlar’s eyes were not as sensitive as they had once been. In the meantime, S’Revlar turned his focus back to finding some kind of shelter to rest for the night. Forcing his tired joints to move, S’Revlar stumbled away from the cliff.

The scouts plodded through the dark and cold for another hour, finally locating a cluster of large boulders. While not completely sheltered from the winds, the boulders held out enough of the wind to allow the scouts to warm up with the heaters inside their armor. S’Revlar opened a small container, staring for a moment as light danced across the clear surface of the container. Then, without another thought, S’Revlar greedily sucked the liquid from the container into his mouth. His entire body felt a tingle, the bio-energy rushing through him, filling him with a new vitality. After the hike through the cruel weather, the small supply of bio-energy felt like a banquet, but the effects wore off quickly, S’Revlar’s fatigue coming to the fore once again. Knowing that his position was as secure as possible, S’Revlar gave in to the fatigue he had been feeling for hours, his mind slowly drifting away to the warmer places of his youth, before he had been conscripted as a hatchling. At times like this he would give anything to be home, but for now he still had to do his duty to his people.

***

Arsa Veranda slowly became aware of light all around her as she regained consciousness. She tried to get up, but found herself held down by something, turning her head slightly, she could see that she was on some kind of table, thick metal straps keeping her pinned down. She gasped, seeing an olive-skinned alien striding towards her. “You are awake, that is good,” the alien said slowly, as though it pained him to speak.

“Who are you?” Veranda demanded.

“I am S’Tallen. Who are you?”

“I am Commander Arsa Veranda of the United Earth Alliance. I demand to know why you fired upon my ship.” S’Tallen did not reply, Veranda realized that he was looking down at a device in his hand. It must be some kind of translator, she thought.

“I do not know about that. Irregardless of who fired upon who, you will become the savior of my world.”

“What?” Veranda blurted out incredulously.

“Let me explain, so that you might better understand the destiny that awaits you,” S’Tallen responded. “My people come from a planet called S’Parni. For countless generations we lived in peace, fed by the bio-energy from the Great Matrix. S’Parnian culture thrived, my people sharpening their intellects, not their weapons. This golden age lasted for a millennium, but it could not last forever.”

“My people had never developed space travel or any kind of defenses. We had no need for weapons, and S’Parnians have never been interested in exploration. We stayed closed to our homes, generations of families all living together in harmony. This lack of curiosity was, in the end, our downfall. One day, over six hundred years ago, S’Parnians looked up to see flashes of light crisscrossing the skies. Many thought it was beautiful, some kind of magical illusion, but it soon turned deadly. Bolts of energy began raining from the sky around the area of the Great Matrix. Many innocent S’Parnians were killed by the energy beams alone, countless more lost when the Great Matrix was struck squarely down the center. A wave of destruction leveling nearby cities, vaporizing water from the bogs, and obliterating any form of life in its path.”

“The Great Matrix provided the bio-energy that my people used for food, power, medicine, our entire society was based upon the Matrix. With its loss, we were forced to take bio-energy from the living creatures around us. The supply, however, was not nearly great enough. Millions died from hunger, many more from diseases that could have been treated if the Matrix had still been lit. The whole of S’Parnian civilization was thrust into chaos.”

“For the first time in a thousand years, war erupted, S’Parnians forming several tribes that fought each other over the supply of bio-energy. For three hundred years this went on, until most of S’Parni had been reduced to a lifeless wasteland. The tribes, having little left to fight over, finally came together to find some kind of solution. A solution that would come from the bane of our society, the stars.”

“Scientists from each tribe worked together to come up with a bio-energy matrix that could provide an awesome amount of power to replace the Great Matrix. Despite their best efforts, though, this matrix could not provide bio-energy for food, because the energy it gave off was, for whatever reason, toxic to S’Parnians. The matrix could, however, be housed in a spacecraft, providing more than enough power to run a vessel of enough size so that it could hold enough bio-energy for all the people of S’Parni. Working for five years, the tribes created one craft, a collection vessel that would be sent throughout the galaxy to find sources of bio-energy and any technology that might help S’Parni survive.”

“The first collection missions brought back an overwhelming amount of bio-energy as well as technology to provide faster-than-light travel, improved weapons, and medical technology, all due to the greatest general in our history, the fearless S’Kenhol. S’Kenhol had a ship, but it was unarmed and its crew inexperienced at space travel. Finding a planet with far more advanced technology, S’Kenhol lured in the enemy, claiming to be nothing more than a freighter from a distant system seeking to trade goods. Seeing that S’Kenhol’s ship was virtually defenseless, the unwitting aliens sent out two warships to greet him. The cunning general allowed both ships to dock, S’Parnian soldiers waiting until the enemy started to come aboard before slaughtering the aliens, capturing both ships. Those vessels were then used against the enemy to decimate defenses from orbit. The battle was a complete rout, S’Kenhol spending a year at the planet to collect as much bio-energy and technological information as possible. During that time, several more battles were fought on the ground and in orbit, S’Kenhol prevailing each time.”

“Returning to S’Parni, S’Kenhol found his people again at war, and on the verge of extinction. S’Kenhol landed his troops on S’Parni, defeating all of the tribes in good order, then the general created a new government, one that would serve all S’Parnians to end the bitter feuds that had lasted for centuries. A Grand Council made of elders from each tribe was formed, the Council led by S’Kenhol. The wise S’Kenhol immediately had the ships captured during the first battle stripped down, their components studied by S’Parnian scientists. The information gleaned from the alien ships allowed the creation of five new collection vessels, each containing enough firepower to wipe out entire worlds. S’Kenhol ordered each collection vessel to travel in different directions in order to find as much bio-energy as possible.”

“Since that time, S’Parnian society has managed to rebuild. The bogs were refilled, cities rebuilt, order restored to the streets. Yet, despite the successes of the collection vessels, it became obvious to the Grand Council that the great ships were coming back with less and less bio-energy. A more permanent solution would have to be found.”

“Ever since I was a small hatchling I had heard the story of the Savior, a being of such tremendous power that it would restore the Great Matrix and herald in a new golden age. According to ancient prophecies, the Savior would be of S’Parnian and alien heritage. While many on S’Parni believe that the Savior is only a myth, I delved into the ancient literature, reading everything I could find and conducting several archaeological studies to locate evidence to support the story. Deep underground I finally found an answer. Scrawled on the walls of a cave were detailed drawings of the Great Matrix, its destruction, and a holy figure descending into the shattered Matrix. The cave drawings were dated at over ten thousand years old, well before any written records.”

“I took my findings to the Grand Council along with a proposal that I travel with one of the collection vessels to carry out my plan to create the Savior. This is where you come in, Arsa Veranda,” S’Tallen stopped, rubbing his sore jaw after speaking for a half hour. “Each time this collection vessel has encountered a new race, I have captured one specimen, injecting it with a mixture of my own design.”

S’Tallen was gone from Veranda’s sight for a minute, then returned with a syringe in his hand. Within the syringe was a translucent white mixture. S’Tallen came closer to Veranda, making certain that she could see the syringe. “In this syringe is what will determine if you are the one to become the Savior, or just another failure. The mixture is a tissue sample taken from a S’Parnian soldier, coated with bio-energy. Ordinarily injecting you with this tissue would do nothing at all, but what I discovered was, that while bio-energy has no effect on S”Parnian biology, it causes genetic mutations in alien species. Once I inject the mixture into your body, the mutating effects of the bio-energy will combine the DNA of the S’Parnian tissue sample with your own genetic code. You will, in effect, become a hybrid of S’Parnian and alien.”

Veranda, suddenly filled with terror, fought vainly against the straps holding her down. “You’re crazy!” She screamed at S’Tallen. “I’m just an ordinary woman, I’m no holy figure!”

“I’m certain that Captain S’Olonny would share your opinion, but what I am doing will propel you to greatness, if you truly are the Savior. If you are, you will save millions of lives and bring a new era of peace to S’Parni.” S’Tallen leveled the syringe at Veranda’s left hip, a location that he had deemed the best spot to inject the mixture. “Once I have injected you, I will place you inside a special tank that will provide your body with the necessary neutrients while your transformation takes place. The process will take several days, but I promise that you will not be conscious the entire time.”

Veranda screamed as S’Tallen jammed the syringe into her hip. Immediately, Veranda felt a burning pain throughout her body, another scream escaping her lips. S’Tallen stepped outside the laboratory, signaling two of his guards to come inside the room. The guards roughly hauled Veranda into an adjoining room that contained only a monitor and a large tank containing a blue liquid that was like what S’Tallen had used to preserve the tissue sample taken from S’Amleng.

Veranda continued to scream from the pain, able to think of nothing except the constant torment, trying to think of her family to comfort her, before she finally succumbed to the pain. S’Tallen nodded to the guards, who unfastened the straps binding Veranda, then hefted her body into the tank. The tank was sealed shut, the level of the blue liquid rising so that it filled the entire tank. Veranda was held in place by the thick mixture that contained the necessary amount of oxygen and nutrients to keep her alive until the process was complete. “Now, you go to your destiny,” S’Tallen said quietly. He turned away, knowing that there was nothing more that he could do.

***

It was well into the night when Rosaro finally signaled for the platoon and Explorer crew to stop, knowing that they were all too fatigued to go further. The group had reached the outer edge of the swamps near Alligator Bay without further harassment by alien forces. The ground had turned soft as the wastelands gave way to marshes and swamps near Alligator Bay, allowing Ramirez and Hoffman to finally be laid to rest. There were few words spoken, just a short prayer and then the group of humans moved on another kilometer before camping for a few hours.

Rosaro wearily sank down against a gnarled old tree, glad for the chance to rest her aching body. More than physical fatigue, she felt the mental fatigue at having lost two men. Even though twenty of the enemy had been killed, Rosaro could not help but feel that the battle had been anything but a victory. The aliens could probably afford some attrition, with their ship overhead they still had access to more troops, weapons, and material while she was cut off from the other human units and had no replacements for the two men she had lost.

Even if her platoon made it to the rendezvous, the situation would be little different. The humans had no reinforcements, no reserves, and no capability to resupply. If the enemy so chose, it could bide its time, sniping at the Alliance forces until there was nothing left. For the hundredth time she wondered if Wallace’s plan was sound, if perhaps more guerrilla tactics would not be more effective. She refused, however, to believe that Shaw’s plan had been the answer. Chasing after ExoArmors that may or may not be functional through deadly mountains would yield little strategic value, except to whittle down her platoon even further.

Davis approached Rosaro, fatigue showing on his face as well. “I’ve set the watch for two-hour intervals. I’ll take the first watch with Charlie, I reserved the last one for you, since I know what a morning person you are.”

Rosaro cracked a weary smile, “Thanks, Al.” Then her expression turned serious once again. “Do you think we’re doing the right thing here?”

Davis shrugged, “I don’t know. There’s so much we don’t know about these aliens. We can’t determine the size of the force they can put in the field, what kind of air support, if that ship in orbit can blast us from orbit. Without that kind of intelligence, we’re completely blind, so there’s no way to know if we’re going about things in the right way.”

“Not exactly what I wanted to hear, but you’re right. Good-night Al.”

“Good-night Manny.” Davis disappeared in the darkness, leaving Rosaro to try to get some sleep. As he prowled along the perimeter, Davis thought he could hear something in the trees to his left, but a fog was rolling in to shroud his view. At first he thought it might be an alien saboteur or maybe some kind of animal, even though he hadn’t seen even an insect yet on this planet, but as he got close he recognized it as the sound of someone crying.

Stepping through the fog, he found Thornton sitting against a rock, her head in her hands. She raised her tear-streaked face at Davis’s approach, wiping the tears away with the back of her hand. “Are you all right?” Davis asked, then regretted it.

“On the Explorer, during the alien attack, I watched a man die right before my eyes. He had been crushed by some falling debris, there wasn’t anything we could do for him. I felt bad for him, but not like today. Ramirez died in my arms, and even though I know better, I feel that it’s my fault. His wound was serious, but he could have survived, if I had done something I could have saved him,” Thornton said quietly.

Davis sat down next to her, holding his rifle between his legs. “If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine. Maybe if I had detected the aliens sooner, or covered him better, he wouldn’t have been hit.” Davis sighed, leaning back against the cold surface of the rock. “I’ve been a soldier for almost twenty years now. I’ve seen more than my share of men and women die, some heroically, some foolishly, and some for no reason at all. What I’ve learned is that you can’t lay blame. In a war, people will die, there’s no escaping that. All that we can do is to survive and keep alive the memories of those who died.”

“I just wished I could have done something for him.”

“You did more for him than you know. You were there for him, making sure that he didn’t die alone.” Davis stopped, laying a hand on Thornton’s shoulder. “For a soldier, there’s nothing more important than that.”

Davis rose to his feet, but before he could leave, Thornton stopped him. “Thank-you,” she whispered. For a moment they looked into each other’s eyes, then Davis nodded and disappeared into the fog.

***

Looking at the latest intelligence data, S’Olonny could see that the time to strike was close at hand. The only alien unit to defeat his forces would soon rendezvous with the remaining enemy forces, but S’Olonny would not let that happen. Turning to S’Segar, S’Olonny commanded, “Have all troop transports launch and hold in orbit until my signal. I will lead this assault personally, you will be in command of the ship until I return.”

“I understand, sir, but I am not sure how wise it is for you to lead this attack. If you are killed…”

“Then you will carry on without me. After twenty years you must have enough experience to take command.”
“Of course, sir, but I would be remiss in my duties if I did not voice my concern over your decision.”

“Your concern is noted, but unwarranted. I am a warrior, if I am to die on this world, then so be it, but I will not hide from battle.”

S’Segar nodded, knowing that S’Olonny thirsted for battle like a newborn hatchling thirsted for bio-energy. The S’Parnian captain was a throwback to the days of tribal warfare, when warriors had fought each other with S’Zais instead of rifles. Short of killing him, there was no way for S’Segar to keep S’Olonny on board the ship while the final clash was fought below.

Watching S’Olonny stride off of the bridge, S’Segar tried not to hope that his captain would fail to return from the surface. As much as S’Segar wanted a command of his own, S’Olonny had taken S’Segar as a juvenile twenty years ago, grooming him to be the second-in-command. In a sense, everything S’Segar had he owed to S’Olonny. Letting out a low hiss, S’Segar focused on carrying out his orders, trying to keep the conflicting emotions from surfacing.

S’Olonny boarded his personal shuttle, taking out his S’Zai from its sheath once he was seated. As he always did before a battle, S’Olonny kissed the blade and said a ritual prayer to fill his body with courage. He forced aside any thoughts of his family, such emotions would only fill him with a fear of death. There was no place in battle for such concerns, a warrior had to be a master of his fear or else he would be defeated.

Sliding the blade back into its sheath, S’Olonny closed his eyes, focusing his mind for the battle ahead. He had carefully planned his strategy to defeat the aliens on the surface, he knew that there was very little chance that the plan could fail. So far, only one group of the aliens had been able to defeat a S’Parnian force, which meant that the S’Parnians would have an edge in the battle. S’Olonny was concerned about the group of aliens that had bested one of his units, but he planned to keep that enemy force contained.

S’Olonny’s shuttle slowly left the hangar of the collection vessel, joining nearly fifty transports in orbit. The time is almost at hand, S’Olonny thought. I will crush these aliens and take whatever bio-energy I can. Then I will be able to return home with years of life for my people.

***

Laurants woke up slowly, his entire body feeling stiff and sluggish. Stretching his aching muscles, Laurants suddenly felt something against him move. Opening his eyes, he realized that Shaw was pressed against him, her head lying against his chest. It took Laurants’s sleep-addled brain a few moments to piece together what had happened the previous night. He gently stroked Shaw’s hair until she began to stir.

“Is it morning already?” Shaw asked groggily.

“I guess so. It felt like I just got to sleep.” Shaw sat up, allowing Laurants to move more freely. Reaching into a pocket, Laurants pulled out two ration bars. “Breakfast in bed?”

“Oh, you knew just what I wanted,” Shaw teased, taking the bar from his hand. “I suppose after breakfast we’ll have to start looking for the ExoArmors again. We’ll need to be more careful if enemy patrols are in the area.”

“Hopefully they just took some readings and left,” Laurants replied. “If they picked up the ExoArmors then we’re in big trouble.”

“Right, so let’s get going.” Shaw grunted as she got to her feet, her entire body sore from sleeping on cold rocks. She stopped, realizing that not all of her body had been sleeping on rocks, much of it had been nestled against Laurants. Watching Laurants gather up the portable heater and other items, Shaw could not help but think about him in an entirely new way. He was no longer just a good young officer, he was a beautiful man on both the inside and outside. He was kind, understanding, sensitive, all of the things that she could want in a man, especially one so ruggedly handsome. But he’s still under my command, she told herself. No matter what happened here, I am still his commanding officer. Shaw had said that there would be no regrets, but now she was having her doubts about giving in to her emotions last night. Maybe it had been because they had both been vulnerable, telling each other the secrets that pained them, or maybe it had been because they were so close to death, a last fling before the end. No matter what, it had happened, and now she would just have to live with the consequences.

“Is something wrong?” Laurants asked. “Are you having second thoughts about last night?”

“How did you know?”

“Because I am too. It doesn’t have to go any farther…”

Shaw’s hand touched Laurants on the cheek. “No, I don’t want it to end. It’s been a long time since I felt this way about anyone, I don’t want to stop feeling the way I do.”

Laurants nodded, taking Shaw’s hand. “I’m glad you said that, I don’t want this to end either. For now, though, I think we’d better get back to the business at hand.”

“Any sign of alien patrols?” Shaw asked, her tone turning professional.

“Nothing that I can pick up, but that doesn’t mean a whole lot, they could always be hiding from our sensors somehow.”

“Granted, but I guess we’ll have to assume that the coast is clear. Just stay sharp.” Laurants nodded, following Shaw up and over the rock formation they had been using for cover. Above that was a gently-sloping plain that was near the midsection of the mountain. Off to the left, Shaw could see the mountain’s sister rising into the sky. Hopefully the ExoArmors are close by, she thought. “So which way do we go?”

Laurants was about to answer when a laser bolt sizzled just past him. The beam of energy hit a nearby boulder, shattering it. Looking to the direction the shot had come from, Shaw and Laurants could see six aliens in black armor. “Shit, they must have some way to go undetected!”

“We’ll figure that out later, we’ve got to find cover,” Shaw said, looking for some way out. The aliens were closing quickly, too quickly to leave the humans many options. Going back down the mountainside was impossible, there would not be enough time, and even if they managed to start down the slope they would be vulnerable to the aliens firing from above them. In desperation, Shaw turned to her left, running as fast as she could, hoping that there was somewhere to hide along the path. Laurants was behind her, tearing through the snow with the agility of someone who has grown up in a cold climate.

“Where are we going?” Laurants asked.

“I don’t know,” Shaw replied, laser blasts evaporating the snow just to her right. Laurants fired a wild burst, the shots going well wide from their intended target. The humans weaved through the snow-covered slope, the aliens slowly catching up. More alien shots whizzed past, one just grazing Laurants’s left leg. Laurants pitched forward into the snow, sliding twenty feet before he managed to come to a stop. Shaw helped him up, asking, “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” Laurants replied. “Just a scrape.” Laurants quickly knocked Shaw to the ground as an alien shot passed by where her head had just been. Shaw rolled to her knees, firing an off-target barrage at the aliens. The alien scouts spread out to avoid Shaw’s volley, giving the two humans the time they needed to get to their feet and take off running once again.

Shaw looked about her, trying to find some kind of cover, but they were only speeding down a sheer white slope. Finally, Shaw skidded to a stop just at the end of a cliff. Looking down, she could see only an endless drop, mist at the base of the mountain obscuring the ground. About a hundred feet from the cliff rose the slope of another of the mountains, an almost-sheer surface of gray rock. Turning to Laurants, Shaw said, “We’ve got to jump.”

“What?”

“We have to jump to the other side, there’s no way we can double back now. Just follow my lead.” After checking that her climbing claws were firmly in place, Shaw said quietly, “There’s a good chance that even if we make it, the impact will shatter almost every bone in our bodies. So this is the last chance to tell you that I love you.”

Laurants was taken aback, unsure of what to say. “I love you too,” he finally stammered.

Shaw nodded, lifting up her mask just enough to kiss Laurants. “Then let’s do it. Just get as much speed as you can and keep your claws extended, that’s the only chance.” Shaw trotted backwards, hoping that she could get up enough speed. The aliens were close now, slowing to a halt as they realized that their prey was trapped. Shaw looked into Laurants’s eyes, then nodded to him. They took off running at the same time, building speed as they neared the edge of the cliff.

When Shaw’s feet reached the edge of the cliff, she threw herself high into the air, letting out a half-terrified, half-triumphant scream. She could feel the cold winds tearing at her as she fell through empty space. The gray slope of the other mountain loomed larger and larger before her, the distance closing in almost a heartbeat. Shaw steeled herself for the impact, keeping the claws on her hands and feet fully extended so that the force of the jump would drive the claws into the rock. The tips of her hand claws brushed against the mountain slope, but with a start, Shaw realized that there was nothing there. She fell through the mountain as though it did not exist at all, her scream ending as she was plunged into darkness. Shaw’s climbing claws sent sparks flying as she slid across a hard surface and finally came to a stop in a puddle of moisture. She heard a groan of pain coming from close to her and assumed that it was Laurants. Shaw tried to stand up, but after wavering unsteadily for a few seconds, her legs finally gave out, and she collapsed to the ground. As her mind went blank, she was vaguely aware that someone was standing over her.

***

S’Revlar stared past the cliff in disbelief. He had watched the foolish aliens leap from the cliff, but it seemed as though they had disappeared through the side of the other mountain. That can’t be what happened, S’Revlar thought. They must have disappeared because of some outcropping of rock, or some kind of optical illusion. S’Revlar would have to find some way to the adjoining mountain slope to determine exactly where the aliens had disappeared.

His anger building, S’Revlar turned, grabbing one of his scouts by the neck. “They would not have escaped if you had not fired before you were ordered to.”

“I am sorry, sir, I had a clear shot…”

S’Revlar reached to his belt, producing a black crystal knife, which he waved in the scout’s face as he growled, “You dare make excuses for disobeying me? None of you do anything without my orders, is that understood?”

“Yes, sir,” the other scouts replied smartly. The scout in S’Revlar’s grasp nodded, causing S’Revlar to loosen his grip slightly.

“Very good. Now, we will have to find where the aliens disappeared to. You,” S’Revlar motioned his head towards the scout he had his hands around, “will investigate this chasm. See if you can find any caves or crevices where the aliens might be hiding.” S’Revlar jammed the knife’s blade into the soft tissue of the scout’s throat, then pulled the dripping weapon away as he hurled the scout from the cliff. He watched as the scout flailed through the air, trying to find some way to stop his descent before he disappeared into the mist below.

The four remaining scouts were horrified, taking a step away from their commander. “I will not tolerate such disobedience. The next one of you to act without orders or who disregards a command will meet a similar fate.” S’Revlar wiped the knife clean and put it back in its sheat, looking over the mountain slope just across the chasm to decide upon the best way to get across. He motioned for a scout to come forward, taking a long weapon-like device from the scout’s backpack. S’Revlar aimed the device at the mountain slope, then touched a button on the side of the object, sending a cable flying through the air. An arrowhead-shaped point on the cable smashed into solid rock, anchoring the cable to the adjacent mountain. There was nothing on S’Revlar’s side of the cliff to anchor the cable to, which meant that each scout would have to swing across the gulf. “We will cross the chasm one at a time, each one of you sending the cable back once you have crossed. When you have reached the other side, attach yourself to the side of the mountain, and climb up to level ground, where we will rendezvous. Is that clear enough?” The scouts nodded fearfully, one stepping forward to take the cable from S’Revlar. S’Revlar watched each scout cross, still unclear about how he had lost sight of his prey. Either they are dead or somehow survived, but I will make certain which it is, S’Revlar thought as he took the cable for his own crossing. Swinging across the distance between the cliff and the mountain, S’Revlar carefully studied the slope for anything that might have been responsible for the aliens’ disappearance. As S’Revlar began to climb up the mountain, he knew that he had seen nothing to explain what had happened. After I have given these fools their orders, I will have to inspect the mountainside, there must be something there to explain the aliens’ disappearance.

***

Wallace looked over the occupants of the tent at the four officers remaining of the two companies he had once commanded. There were only about seventy-five survivors of the ground forces, just over a third of Wallace’s troops remained. “We can’t be certain with all the jamming the aliens are using against us, but we believe that the reinforcements we expected have been wiped out.” Wallace waited for the room to settled down after that announcement, then continued. “This does not change our mission, or our tactics. It only means that we have to manage resources more carefully, fight a more efficient battle. We can’t afford to lose anyone, make that clear to your troops. I don’t want foolish heroics that will get people needlessly killed.”

Wallace stopped to acknowledge the raised hand of former armor commander Lieutenant Tim Connolly. Connolly drawled, “Sir, excuse my bluntness, but what you’re saying is that we’re making a last stand against God-only-knows how many of these things and we don’t have any help?”

“This is not a last stand!” Wallace bellowed. He wiped sweat from his forehead, then continued more calmly, “We don’t know anything about these aliens, they may have a weakness we can exploit. What I do know is that if we think of this as our last stand, we are already beaten. We can win this, if we follow the plan and use our resources wisely. Any other questions?”

There were no more hands raised, Wallace dismissed the officers and stood alone in the tent with Lieutenant Hornsby. “Is everything ready?” Wallace asked.

“Yes, sir, all units are on alert status and waiting for your command,” Hornsby answered nervously.

“Good…”

Wallace was interrupted by a courier rushing into the tent. “The alien jamming has stopped! Our sensors are detecting alien ships inbound. We may also have picked up a group of humans on the edge of the bay, but the readings are a little hazy,” the courier reported, handing Wallace a compad that showed roughly fifty alien transports on their way down.

Wallace nodded gravely. “Get your troops ready, Lieutenant, we don’t have much time to lose,” he commanded. Once Hornsby and the courier were gone, Wallace stared down at his trembling hands, lost in thought. They’re coming in larger numbers than we anticipated, there’s no way that we can win, Wallace thought glumly. He sat down, taking his sidearm from its holster. It would not provide adequate protection, but it would do the job when the time came. That time, Wallace knew, would soon be at hand.

Rosaro’s boots pounded the soft ground as she charged towards Alligator Bay. Sensors had detected alien ships incoming, the sounds of battle becoming clearer the closer Rosaro came to the bay. The Fifth Platoon ran behind Rosaro at breakneck speed, leaving some of the Explorer crew behind, but there was no time for an orderly march. “Come on!” Rosaro shouted. She jumped over a log, landing up to her ankles in muddy water. Rosaro tried to keep her reckless pace going, but the spongy ground prevented her from doing so. There was the sound of an explosion in the distance, followed by a column of smoke rising into the air. Are we too late? Rosaro wondered.

Rosaro suddenly heard a tree branch snap off to her left. She turned in that direction to see red-armored aliens pouring from the short trees. Looking to her right she saw more aliens coming from the fog-shrouded trees. “Back, pull back!” Rosaro called, bringing her weapon up. She fired towards the group on her left, desperately trying to run the way that she had come, but the terrain held her up. The others in the Fifth Platoon and the Explorer crew were similarly bogged down in the muck. The aliens had yet to fire a shot, seeming content to simply stand at the tree line and watch the humans. Maybe they don’t see us, she thought, but knew that there was no way for the aliens not to notice. Then it hit her just as she turned to see a cluster of aliens coming from behind.

“We’re trapped!” Someone called out, as though Rosaro had not already realized their predicament. Yet, even as the group of aliens approached from the rear, there were no shots coming from any of the three alien units. It was quite clear to Rosaro that the aliens were trying to herd the humans, for what purpose she had no idea, but she had no choice but to play their game until she could find some other way out.

“Everyone, back up slowly, keep an eye out for the first sign of a shot,” Rosaro commanded, backing slowly towards Alligator Bay, her weapon trained on the aliens ahead of her. Rosaro looked to her right and left, trying to find some way out, but there was no route of escape, all she could do was hope that the platoon could find some human reinforcements.

S’Olonny watched his soldiers scamper back further into the bay, the smoldering wreck of a transport to his left. Everything was going exactly as he had planned. His troops had launched the initial assault, then began to retreat on his signal. The enemy, sensing a rout, was already in pursuit, up to their waists in murky water, the soft ground slowing their movements. S’Olonny tapped a button on his communications device, sending the signal for all of the S’Parnian warriors to regroup. The three hundred S’Parnians slowly began to regroup in lines behind S’Olonny, who watched the opponent’s forces stop, unsure if they should attack the mass of S’Parnian might.

Reaching down to his waist, S’Olonny pulled his S’Zai from its sheath. He raised it over his head, then pointed it at the enemy, letting a war cry escape his lips. As one, the S’Parnians charged forward, their tails and the webbing of their clawed feet carrying them through the swamp with unparalleled speed. Before the battle, S’Olonny had ordered all of his soldiers to shed their boots, knowing that this ruse would require the S’Parnians’ natural ability to easily navigate marshy terrain. That order was paying dividends now, with the human forces mired in the marshes, unable to retreat to more solid ground before the S’Parnians were upon them. S’Olonny felt one of the enemy’s shots strike him in the left shoulder, but his armor absorbed the shot. The S’Parnian captain used his tail to help launch himself into the air, slicing off the head of one of the enemy as he landed. Whirling around, S’Olonny’s S’Zai slashed across the elbow of another of his foes, the enemy warrior’s arm splashing into the murky water. The enemy soldier screamed until S’Olonny’s weapon sliced into its throat.

All around him, S’Olonny could see his warriors routing their opponents, the blood of the enemy creating a red foam on the surface of Alligator Bay. S’Olonny charged forward, deftly avoiding being hit by another shot, then stabbing the enemy soldier in the chest. Within minutes S’Olonny was close to the shore, all of his foes lying face-down in the shallow water. The rest of the S’Parnian forces had similarly finished off the opposition, wading to shore to destroy any remaining resistance.

Things had seemed to be going so well for General Wallace. The initial alien onslaught had been repulsed, the shattered remains of the alien force retreating back into the bay to be decimated by the Alliance troops. Once into the bay, though, the aliens had regrouped and swiftly annihilated the humans, the alien withdraw merely a cunning ruse to lure the humans to fight in the swamp. Instead of trapping the aliens, Wallace’s men had been trapped, unable to withstand the brutal alien reprisal.

The few humans who had been left on the shore were now facing nearly the full might of the aliens. All is lost, Wallace thought. He knew he could issue a retreat, but there was nowhere to go. The aliens would be upon the humans well before they could make it into any kind of favorable terrain. No, Wallace thought to himself, we will all die here.

The sound of laser rifles mixed with the screams from the dying and the blood-curdling war cries of the aliens. It would not be much longer until the aliens reached the buildings of the base camp, killing any who happened to be inside. Wallace reached to his waist, pulling his weapon from its holster. He was about to stick the barrel into his mouth to end his own life when he saw something very large in the doorway. Quaking with fear, Wallace realized that it was an alien in dark blue armor, its massive frame hunched over to enter the command center. Some kind of crystal sword was in its right hand, red blood staining the length of the blade.

The alien moved slowly towards Wallace, growling something in its native tongue. Wallace stumbled backwards, firing a shot from his pistol that merely glanced off of the alien’s armor. The alien reached out with a clawed hand, grabbing Wallace by the collar and hefting the general high into the air, its orange eyes boring into him. The alien said something in its language, in a tone that sounded to Wallace like pure disgust.

Wallace was thrown roughly to the ground, the blade of the S’Zai stabbing down into his belly before he could move. Wallace screamed, wriggling like a stuck pig to try to free himself, but the alien warrior pinned Wallace with its feet, then began to speak once again. After a moment, Wallace realized that the alien was not talking to him, but was instead looking towards the sky. Wallace groped around for some sort of weapon, but he could find nothing, his pistol was lying several feet away. The Alliance general’s strength started to wane as the alien worked the blade up slowly towards Wallace’s neck. Wallace could see the alien blade approaching, inch by inch, a trail of blood and intestines oozing from its wake. Wallace screamed in anguish, watching the crystal blade tear through his flesh with the ease and precision of a surgeon’s scalpel. The alien began a feverish chant as its weapon sliced through Wallace’s breastbone, tearing into his heart. With a final terrified wail, Wallace’s entire body went limp, his head lolling to one side.

Sensing that his foe was vanquished, S’Olonny finished the cut quickly, the S’Zai blade easily tearing through the enemy’s throat. Prying the blade from the enemy’s carcass, S’Olonny left the command center, rivulets of blood forming a red pool of blood around Wallace’s corpse and staining S’Olonny’s bare feet. One of S’Olonny’s unit commanders scurried up, reporting, “The enemy is completely destroyed, sir. We have also contained the rogue enemy unit as you commanded.”

“Excellent. Report our victory to S’Segar and have him dispatch the collection units,” S’Olonny commanded. The S’Parnian commander nodded, hurrying to carry out his orders. Meanwhile, S’Olonny activated his communications device once again. “Captain S’Sumsua, hold the enemy in position until my arrival.”

“Yes, sir,” S’Sumsua replied, carefully watching the enemy pull back slowly towards the bay, exactly as S’Olonny had planned. “We will keep them here until your arrival.”

S’Olonny signed off, motioning for another of his unit commanders. “I want thirty of your best troops, immediately.” Nodding smartly, the commander scampered away. S’Olonny waded back into the swamp, thirty S’Parnian warriors forming up behind him. Now I will crush their last resistance, S’Olonny thought.

Rosaro watched the aliens on either side of her glide into the swamp in order to maintain their flanking positions. No shots had been fired yet, but Rosaro could sense that something would happen soon. The sounds of battle were closer, but Rosaro could not see anything yet, a fog rolling in to shroud the shore. “What are we going to do, Manny?” Davis asked softly.

“I don’t know, what can we do? We open fire and we’ll be caught in that crossfire, unless…” Rosaro broke off, an idea suddenly coming to her.

“Unless what?” Davis prodded.

“I want everyone to form a three-sided box, shoulder-to-shoulder, back-to-back, facing in each direction. When I give the signal, open fire, then duck down into the water when they shoot back,” Rosaro said, drawing the three-sided box in the air with her finger.

“So you hope that they’ll catch each other with their own crossfire?”

“If we’re lucky, but even if we don’t, we’ll be able to take out most of them before they can get us.”

“Now you’re sounding like the Manny I’ve come to know and love,” Davis smiled. He carefully slid over to Cromwell, whispering the plan into the private’s ear. Cromwell passed the plan down the line until it reached the entire platoon and Explorer survivors. Trying not to make any sudden moves, the humans formed up as Rosaro had diagramed to Davis. The aliens continued forward, seemingly unaware to the humans’ plan. Rosaro raised one arm, letting it slowly drop to the water’s surface.

At the signal, the three sides facing the aliens opened fire. Rosaro could see about six aliens disappear below the surface, killed by captured alien weapons or the heavy rifles the platoon carried. The human rifles and pistols, while largely ineffective, managed to wound another three or four alien soldiers. Rosaro took in a deep breath then ducked into the murky water.

She held her breath until her lungs burned, then slowly brought her head up, taking in a breath of air. She could see a few more alien bodies floating on the surface, cut down by friendly fire. Rosaro brought her weapon up, letting off a burst before sinking into the water once more. When she bobbed to the surface, she saw the alien units shifting position so they were not directly in line with each other.

“Lieutenant, we’ve got more coming from the rear!” Private Flanders shouted. Rosaro turned around to see a line of aliens appearing through the fog. At the head of the line was a huge alien in dark blue armor, some kind of sword in its right hand.

“What do we do now?” Davis asked.

“We’ve got to break through or we’ll be trapped. We’ll hit that line coming in at full speed, then we’ll run like hell,” Rosaro replied.

“Doesn’t sound like much of a plan.”

“It’s all we’ve got.” Rosaro raised her voice so that everyone could hear her. “They’re trying to surround us for the kill, we’re dead if we don’t break out. On my signal, I want you all to charge that rear line. No matter what happens we have break through, or else there’s no way out. Now I know that this sewage will slow us down, but I want everyone to move as quickly as you can, it’s our only chance.” The box the humans had made quickly turned into one solid line, Rosaro at the lead. “Go!” Rosaro screamed, then surged ahead, her legs burning as she plowed through the marsh. The alien lines to the left, right, and rear of the humans were all turning in pursuit, but Rosaro doubted that they could catch up. She saw the alien line ahead stop, stiffening to take whatever punishment the humans delivered.

Raising her rifle, Rosaro set her sights on the lead alien in the blue armor. She put her finger on the trigger, taking a deep breath as she opened fire. The alien in blue was hit twice by Rosaro’s shots, but it did not go down. Instead, it shouted something in its language, then motioned towards her with its sword. As one, the alien line suddenly charged, seemingly intent on mixing it up at close range with the humans. The two lines came closer and closer, the humans pouring on fire from their weapons while the aliens’ weapons were silent.

As the human and alien lines closed, Rosaro could see the aliens suddenly speed up, moving as if on solid ground. In seconds one dove at Rosaro, a clawed hand reaching out to grab her by the shoulder, hauling her down into the water. Floundering in the swamp, Rosaro used the butt of her rifle, striking blindly at the alien until she could no longer feel its grip. She emerged from the water to see the humans engaged in one-on-one combat with the alien forces, except for the alien in blue armor, which was standing at the edge of the battle, staring directly at Rosaro.

Leaving her people behind, Rosaro slowly waded towards the alien, knowing that any escape was futile unless she took care of this alien. By the way that it stood and the distinctive color of his armor as opposed to the others, Rosaro guessed that this was the lead alien, maybe if she killed it, the alien force would fall apart. She fired a shot from her rifle, but the alien disappeared from sight. Looking around, Rosaro tried to see where the alien had gone, then something shot out of the water with tremendous force. Before Rosaro could react, she saw the blue-clad alien silhouetted against the water and fog, the sword in its right hand lashing out to strike her in the side of the head.

Rosaro felt dizzy, the alien seeming to split apart into three separate images before her eyes. Reaching to the side of her head, Rosaro realized that there was no blood. She stumbled in the water, aware that the alien had hit her with the flat of the sword, not with the edge. Rosaro felt around in the water for her rifle, but it had vanished. The alien took a step forward, taking another swing with its sword. Rosaro ducked under the blow, reaching to her belt for her knife. As the alien’s momentum from the missed swing carried him past, Rosaro brought her knife up, taking a wild swing, but it struck only air. From the corner of her eye she could see the alien bring its right arm back, its armored elbow connecting with the back of her head. Rosaro pitched forward into the water, the world going black around her.

Davis threw aside the alien attacking him, holding its head down into the water until he could no longer feel it move. He quickly moved to his left, avoiding the butt of an alien rifle. Davis whirled around, blasting the alien carrying the rifle at close range. All around him, he could see the humans beginning to buckle under the weight of the alien attack. It seemed that the aliens had the advantage of being able to move far more nimbly in the swamp, an advantage that was only increased in close-quarters combat.

Davis shot the alien who had Private Cromwell by the throat, helping the human soldier back to his feet. “They’re beating us, Sarge,” Cromwell gasped.

Looking back, he could see the remaining alien forces quickly approaching. The window for escape was fast closing on the humans. “I know, Charlie, but we can’t stop fighting or we’re dead for sure,” Davis growled, pulling his knife out. Davis roared as he charged at an alien, driving the knife into the alien’s neck. He stripped the alien of its weapon, leaving his knife behind. With a rifle in both arms, Davis began shooting at any alien within his range. He saw four go down, but one managed to spin as it was falling, firing a shot that hit Davis in the right shoulder. The rifle in that arm fell from his grasp, Davis wincing in pain from the wound, but even as the strength drained from his wounded limb, he continued ahead.

Laurie Thornton ducked just as a stray laser blash flew by where her head had been only moments before. Plopping into the muddy marsh water, Thornton could hear Private Flanders open up with another burst from his heavy laser rifle. “Let’s go, let’s go!” Flanders shouted. Lieutenant Susan Sanders helped Thornton to her feet while Ensign Jerry Klein looked about him nervously and Private Jim Maclean brought up the rear.

The five humans churned up even more mud into the water as they raced across the marsh at full speed. A sandbar was up ahead, Flanders motioning for the others to take cover while he and Maclean checked the area around them. “There’s too many of them,” Klein swore, looking through the thick brown weeds. “There’s no way for us to make it out.”

Sanders fired a shot into the misty darkness, then nodded her head. “It’s not looking good.” The darkness around them suddenly exploded into purple light as Flanders fired a burst into a trio of alien warriors engaged with two humans. Thornton could see the three aliens go down, but immediately, more took their place. Everywhere she looked, she could see humans grappling with the enemy in groups or alone. She could hear the sound of gunfire as shots crisscrossed through the night, hear the screams that echoed over the marsh, hear the splashes of bodies collapsing into the water. She saw Private Cromwell, fighting a pair of aliens hand-to-hand, take a shot in the hip then finally fall into the water with the two aliens on top of him. Turning away, it became more and more apparent that the situation was hopeless, that there were simply too many aliens and too few humans.

Thornton was shaken from her thoughts as a laser beam scorched into the weeds, striking Sanders in the right ankle. Sanders screamed in pain, collapsing into the wet sand and rolling over onto her back. The others turned to see the aliens that had been behind the humans in their mad charge had caught up, and were now swarming over the battlefield. Flanders cursed, letting go a barrage from his heavy rifle, which Maclean followed up with a burst from his own weapon. Waiting for the weapon to recharge, Flanders turned to the three Explorer crewmembers.

“There’s no way that we can all escape,” Flanders started slowly. “Jim and I will lay down cover, you three run as fast as you can, we’ll try to hold them off until you get clear.”

Sanders shook her head, tears running down her grime-streaked face. “No, I can’t go, I’d only slow you down with this bum ankle. Jerry, Laurie, you two go.”

Thornton started to protest, “Lieutenant, we can’t leave you…”

“Someone has to find Captain Shaw and tell her about this. If she finds the ExoArmors, maybe then she can find some way to get a message to Earth, to let them know what happened,” Sanders explained, taking Maclean’s hand so that she could sit up.

Before Thornton could protest again, Flanders laid a hand on her shoulder. It was at that moment that she realized that he was so young, no more than a year or so older than her, and yet he was going to give his life to save hers. “She’s right, you have to find the captain, it’s our only hope left. We’ll keep them busy for as long as we can, you just run like hell until you’re in the forest. Here, you’ll need this.” Flanders took off his backpack, handing it to Thornton. She numbly put the heavy pack on her shoulders, barely even feeling the weight.

Thornton wanted to scream that she wouldn’t abandon them, that she would rather die then leave her comrades behind, but Klein was already pulling her away. She let him tug her out of the sandbar, taking a last look at the three brave soldiers who were staying behind to protect her. She heard Flanders and Maclean shout some kind of war cry as they opened fire, then she heard Klein hiss into her ear, “Come on, run!” Turning her back on the others, Thornton put her head down and ran blindly through the marsh, across the battlefield.

Shots whizzed past her, some just centimeters from her flesh, but none hit her. Remembering the brave stand her comrades were making, she pushed ahead at inhuman speed, her feet hardly touching the water as she flew through the marshlands. She heard Klein cry out, then a splash of something heavy falling into the water, and she knew that he was gone, but her pace never slowed. She moved along even faster, with grim determination to make the sacrifice of Flanders, Sanders, Maclean, and Klein worth something.

She was within sight of a misty beach, when she saw something rise out of the water ahead of her. Before she could slow down or change direction, she found herself flying backwards through the air, landing on her back in the muddy water and staring up at an enormous alien in blue armor, a blood-streaked green crystal sword in its hand. Thornton tried to back away, looking for a weapon, but none were to be had. The alien raised the sword over its head, its orange eyes burning with fury as it prepared to strike. Thornton wanted to close her eyes, but she was mesmerized by the grim alien warrior, telling herself that those who had given their lives to save her had died in vain. The killing blow arced down towards her head, but it never reached her. Instead, the alien fell heavily to the left, sending brown waves crashing onto Thornton and nearly drowning her. Spitting out the putrid water, Thornton saw Davis on top of the alien, trying to hold the much bigger creature down.

“Go!” Davis shouted to her. Without thinking, Thornton rose to her feet, but it was already too late. The alien warrior threw Davis aside, reaching out to grab Thornton’s pack and spin her around. The alien put one huge hand around Thornton’s neck, slowly applying more and more pressure to crush her windpipe. Thornton tried to slap the alien’s hand away, but her blows were too weak to have any effect, the alien’s arm was like a steel vise closing tighter and tigher around her neck until spots formed in her vision.

In her dimming vision, she could barely make out Davis rising to his feet, grabbing the sword that had fallen from the alien’s grasp. Davis quietly moved towards the alien, the sword out in front of him to stab the alien through the chest. Thornton could feel the alien’s grip loosen, almost as thoug it sensed what Davis was up to. As Davis was about to strike, the alien’s tail whipped out of the water, slashing Davis in the hands, the sword dropping back into the water. The alien threw Thornton aside, then turned to deal with Davis once again. Lying once more on her back in the water, Thornton looked around for the sword, or anything else that she could use, but then she saw Davis motioning for her to stay down.

Thornton was unsure of what to do, but heeded the sergeant’s silent command, watching helplessly as Davis took a punch squarely to the stomach, doubling him over before the alien slammed its fists into the human’s back, sending Davis falling into the water. The Fifth Platoon sergeant seemed to make an effort to stand, but then collapsed back into the marsh water. Thornton closed her eyes and tried to lay still, feeling the alien warrior’s eyes upon her. She held her breath until her lungs burned, her brain frantically ordering her to take in air to save itself, but she continued to lay perfectly motionless until she heard heavy footsteps moving away from her. Allowing herself a deep breath, Thornton opened her eyes to see that the alien was gone and Davis was carefully floating towards her.

“Give it another few minutes, then we’ll make our way to shore,” Davis whispered. “Are you all right?” He added.

“I’m fine,” Thornton rasped, suddenly feeling completely numb from shock and grief.

“Good. Don’t worry, we’re going to find some way to pay these bastards back, I promise you,” Davis growled, but at the moment, the words were of little comfort to Thornton.

Chapter Five

2007-06-12T13:07:00.001-07:00

Chapter Five

Shaw wearily sank down onto a crate, taking in Rosaro’s report of the alien attack on the platoon. “So they attacked your position, took Commander Veranda, and left?”

“That’s right,” Rosaro replied, sitting across from Shaw. “We think it was some kind of recon mission, they must want someone to interrogate.”

Shaw shook her head slowly. “Interrogate? They don’t even know our language. I think they wanted a live human to study, to find our weaknesses.”

“Either way, they have your officer now. As much as I’d like to try a rescue mission, we don’t know where she’s being held.”

“Nor do we have any transportation,” Shaw said bitterly. She motioned to Laurants and Thornton, “We were on our way to find the ExoArmors and use their firepower to even the odds.”

“General Wallace has ordered all ground units to assemble at Alligator Bay for a counteroffensive,” Rosaro replied. She took a sip of water from her canteen before continuing. “Honestly, Captain, even if I could help you, I’m not sure I would. Those mountains are dangerous, I already lost one man trying to climb them. If we did survive the climb, it could take days or weeks to find the ExoArmors, and from what you’ve said, they may not be operational.”

“That may be true, but we need the firepower, otherwise the aliens will roll over us. You must see the tactical advantage the ExoArmors provide us.”

“An advantage that is eliminated by the time we waste in crawling through treacherous terrain. By the time we found these machines, the rest of our troops could be destroyed.”

“Do you think one platoon will make a difference?”

“No, but as I said, we have orders from General Wallace. I bent the rules by coming here instead of straight to Alligator Bay, but turning back for the mountains would be desertion.”

“I would take personal responsibility…”

“I’m sorry, Captain, but you have no authority on the ground. General Wallace is the commander of all ground assets, including my platoon. He has given us an order and we have to follow it whether we like it or not.”

Shaw sighed, nodding to Rosaro. “You’re right, Lieutenant.” She looked around at the Explorer crewmembers that were assembled around her. As she looked at them, she noticed most of the crewmembers turned away from her gaze, giving her a sense that they agreed with Rosaro, that climbing the mountains was too dangerous and probably a waste of time. “I want you to take my crew with you.”

Rosaro cocked an eyebrow in puzzlement. “What about you?”

“The ExoArmors are the most advanced technology Earth has to offer. Someone has to make sure that they do not fall into enemy hands. I’ll go alone and destroy any units that may have survived the crash.”

“Captain, that’s suicide!” Thornton blurted out.

“That may be, but if we can find the ExoArmors, so can the aliens. If they do, then they would know our true weapons capability. It’s my responsibility to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“According to who?” Rosaro demanded.

“Alliance Command. They directed me to make sure the ExoArmors do not fall into enemy hands, no matter the cost.”

Rosaro nodded slowly, then stood up. “If you’re going to go, let me give you my climbing equipment and a weapon to at least give you a fighting chance.” Rosaro took the equipment from her backpack, then handed Shaw a compad and one of the alien weapons the platoon had captured. “This is all of the data I gathered on the mountains during the few scans I got in. The alien weapon works pretty much like ours, but I’m not sure how much power is left in it. Good luck, sir.” Rosaro saluted Shaw, a gesture quickly repeated by the rest of the platoon and Explorer crew.

Returning the salutes, Shaw began to don the climbing gear. “Good luck to you, Lieutenant. Take good care of my crew.” Shaw finished putting on the equipment before turning and slowly walking away.

***

Laurants watched Shaw fade from view, vaguely hearing Rosaro order, “OK, everyone, let’s pack up this stuff and get going.” The platoon and Explorer crew immediately set to work packing up whatever supplies they could carry. Laurants felt his fists clench, an anger building within him. They were just going to let Shaw go off on her own to die alone. I can’t stand by and let that happen! He glanced briefly at each member of the platoon, easing his way over to Private Cromwell, who was sorting out supplies away from everyone else.

Laying a firm grip on the soldier’s shoulder, Laurants said quietly, “I want your climbing equipment and a weapon.”

“What? I can’t do that…” Laurants tightened his grip, the look on his face indicating that he would not accept no for an answer. Cromwell finally nodded, bending down to retrieve the gear from his backpack. He handed Laurants his rifle, shaking his head sadly. “I don’t know what you’re doing, pal, but it’s suicide. My best friend died trying to climb those mountains, what chance do either of you have?” He asked while Laurants donned a helmet and thermal coat.

“I won’t just leave her behind to die,” Laurants replied, snapping shut the face shield of his helmet. Then, before anyone else could notice him, Laurants sprinted away from the escape pods towards Shaw.

Laurants heard Thornton call his name, but he did not care. At the very least, he wasn’t going to let Shaw die alone up there. He quickly closed the distance between the captain and himself, Shaw coming to a stop as he approached. “Did Lieutenant Rosaro decide to send an escort?” Shaw asked quietly.

“No, sir, I came of my own free will.”

“Then you’re a fool, Ensign. Turn back and go with the others.”

“I can’t do that, sir. As you said, someone has to make sure those ExoArmors do not fall into enemy hands. The odds of our mission being successful are twice as good if there are two of us. That way one of us can continue the mission if the other is incapacitated.”

There was a tense moment of silence, Laurants wondering if Shaw was going to force the issue. Finally, she nodded wearily. “Point well taken. We haven’t got much time, so we’ll have to be quick.”

“Yes, sir.”

Shaw sighed, the expression on her face indicating that she had reluctantly come to a decision, “Ensign, we’re going to be alone on this mission for who knows how long, I think we can get rid of the formality. Just call me Lisa.”

“Yes, sir…um, Lisa.”

Shaw smiled for a brief moment, patting Laurants on the back. “You’re a quick learner, Jack. Let’s go find those ExoArmors.” Laurants nodded and fell into step behind Shaw, noting that for just a moment he had seen the life return to Shaw.

***

S’Tallen watched his experiment being hauled away on a commandeered ordinance cart, rubbing the spot where S’Olonny’s S’Zai had grazed his neck. The outburst of violence did not surprise S’Tallen, he had known for years that the captain was unstable, but it did serve as a reminder that time was running out. He had to get this experiment right, or else there may not be another chance. The time had come to try something different and hope that the gamble paid off.

Looking around the hangar, S’Tallen could see soldiers scurrying aboard transports that would take them to the surface. This was, S’Tallen knew, the perfect time to get a fresh blood sample without being detected by S’Olonny. S’Tallen searched for a likely victim, his eyes stopping on a young soldier waiting at the end of the line to board a transport. Checking to make sure no one was spying on him, S’Tallen eased over to the soldier, who nervously came to attention at S’Tallen’s approach. “Director S’Tallen, is there something I can help you with?” The solider asked.

S’Tallen made a mental examination of the trooper before him. In his previous experiments, S’Tallen had used the blood of adult males, but with time running out he decided to try a juvenile male in the hopes that the younger DNA would provide superior results. From the dark green color of the soldier’s skin, S’Tallen could tell that this young male had yet to shed his preadult skin. “What is you name, soldier?” S’Tallen asked, putting as much authority into his voice as was possible.

“S’Amleng, sir.”

“S’Amleng? Well, S’Amleng, I have a very important mission for you. Follow me.”

“But sir…”

“There is no time to waste, I have already cleared this mission with your commanding officer.” S’Amleng relented at the last part of S’Tallen’s statement, following the scientist out of the hangar and into the corridor. “We’ll start here,” S’Tallen said, motioning for S’Amleng to enter an unmarked door.

Looking around the dark room, S’Amleng asked, “Sir, this is a supply room…” Before S’Amleng could finish, S’Tallen held him down and jabbed a needle into his side. S’Tallen felt the juvenile soldier fight back, but he managed to pull out a syringe filled with S’Amleng’s brown blood.

S’Tallen shoved S’Amleng to the floor, trying to look as menacing as possible. “Tell no one of what happened here or you will risk countless lives,” S’Tallen hissed then disappeared.

He hurried towards his lab, examining the blood, as though his eyes could someone detect if it would provide the spark he needed. S’Tallen doubted that the young soldier would say anything to his commanding officer or S’Olonny. Like many of the juvenile troops, S’Amleng seemed to have an innate fear of authority figures, that would serve S’Tallen well in this case.

The doors to the laboratory hissed open, lights coming up as S’Tallen entered the darkened room. Lying on a flat bed, held down by thick metal straps, was the prisoner. Above the prisoner’s head was a monitor that kept track of its vital signs. S’Tallen checked the readings, wondering if the numbers meant that the creature was in good health or not. He pressed a button on the machine, a dim blue energy field surrounding the prisoner. The energy field slowly began to map the prisoner’s body on the molecular level, which would allow S’Tallen to diagnose the results when his work was finished. He went to a cooling chamber, where a larger syringe was already partially filled with a clear gel dancing with rainbow-colored lights. He added S’Amleng’s blood to the bio-energy in the large syringe, then put it back in the cooling chamber. After the door was closed, he pushed a button that spun the syringe around until its contents had become one uniform mixture. This was the catalyst for his experiment, what he hoped would be his last.

Having fully prepared for the experiment, there was only one thing left to do. S’Tallen sat down at his computer terminal, which came alive to his touch. Entering the code given to him by the Grand Council, S’Tallen quickly gained access to all of the ship’s records. After a moment of looking through the most recent records, S’Tallen found what he was after. He watched in fascination as the message received from the enemy ship played in both audio and visual formats. After months of trying to decipher the language of this alien culture, the visual message provided him with the last piece of information he needed.

S’Tallen knew that he didn’t have much time before someone on the bridge realized what he was doing, so he worked quickly to edit the parts of the message that would be of use to him. He transferred those parts of the message that remained to a special database he had been working on for nearly twenty years, a database that would allow him to translate the alien language.

Leaning back in his chair, S’Tallen waited for the computer to add the selected bits of the message to the database. Once the translation process was complete, S’Tallen would be able to communicate with his prisoner, to explain to it not only what would happen, but how the experiment would save S’Tallen’s people for all time. The computer signaled that it had finished with the operation, bringing up the translation program. S’Tallen read over the words on the screen, straining to pronounce each word in the alien tongue. While it was difficult, S’Tallen knew that the pain was necessary for his experiment to truly succeed. He went through the program nearly a dozen times, until he decided that he had finally mastered the alien pronunciations. Grabbing a small device of his own design, S’Tallen downloaded the program, then spoke a few words to make certain that it was working.

S’Tallen looked across the lab to where the prisoner lay, awaiting the moment when the alien would wake up so that he could continue with his grand work. It would be hours before his experiment regained consciousness, but S’Tallen could wait. Like the pain from learning a new language, S’Tallen was willing to endure the agony of waiting if it meant that he would finally succeed.

***

“I don’t think we should have let them go,” Davis said to Rosaro as they marched across the hard, gray terrain.

“What choice did I have?” Rosaro asked acidly. “She was going to go no matter what I said. Would you rather I had her shot?"

“No, but between you and me, joining up with Wallace is suicide. What kind of counteroffensive will we be able to muster?”

“I don’t like it either, but we have orders from the general, we can’t just disregard them.”

“We’ve disobeyed orders before, why can’t we now?”

“Because lives are at stake. If any counteroffensive is going to work, it will need the most experienced platoon in the Alliance.”

Davis smiled, shaking his head, “I shouldn’t have doubted you, Manny. I’ll pass along what you said to the others, I think they’ll understand.”

“That’s all I ask, Al.” Rosaro looked behind her at the rest of the small column. “How are the Explorer people holding up?”

“They’re a little tired, but seem to be doing all right.”
“Good. I don’t know what will happen to them when we get to the bay, they don’t have the experience to put onto the front lines.”

“They can probably stay back to guard our camp or something.” Rosaro nodded, lost in thought for a moment. “Don’t let what happened with Shaw get to you too much, Boss.”

“I’m trying, but they always told us not to leave anyone behind.”

“It’s like you said, we have to follow our orders.”

Rosaro shook her head bitterly, “I can say that, but inside I still don’t believe it. Pass the word that we’ll take a rest once night comes.”

“Sure thing,” Davis replied, taking the hint from Rosaro, he left her alone to ponder her situation. Telling herself that her hands were tied did little to ease her pain at letting Shaw and Laurants leave the group. She had been taught all her life, from the street gangs she had run with during her childhood in Mexico City to her training for the Alliance military, that a good soldier does not leave a comrade behind to die alone, but that was what she had been forced to do.

Even worse, while she tried to be angry at Shaw for leaving, Rosaro knew that she had done the same thing only hours before when she had made Davis leave the rest of the platoon at the base of the mountains. Rosaro had thought that she was doing her duty, protecting her troops from harm, but in the end had she done more harm? Perhaps Caustillo would still be alive if she had allowed him to come with her, instead of forcing him to go against his instincts, instincts that she shared. Rosaro tried to fight down the grief, there would be plenty of time to grieve later, if she and the other members of the platoon survived. Keeping them alive is my top priority now, Rosaro thought. Shaw and Laurants are on their own. I just hope they fare better than Reekie did.

***

Staring up at the sheer face of rock rising into the sky, Laurants was more than a little daunted by the mountain. “It’s just as bad as Rosaro said,” he breathed.

“Well, there’s no going back now,” Shaw replied, trying to keep the fear from her voice. She attached her climbing claws and secured her rifle to her back, then dug the claws on her feet into the rock. Carefully she plunged the hand claws farther up into the mountain, feeling the claws grab hold she pulled herself up to the handholds, making another set above her head. “Come on, Jack, we don’t have all day!”

Laurants took a deep breath, wondering for the thousandth time why he had insisted on coming with Shaw. He had often climbed the mountains near Wolf Bluff in British Columbia, but none of those mountains were as big as this one. Still, he could hardly back down with Shaw already climbing up the face of the mountain. As he began his ascent, Laurants thought about the subtle change that had come over Shaw since they had started their journey to the mountains. She was still grim, still looking defeated, but there were brief moments when she let herself be human. Always, as though she realized that her mask had slipped, she returned to her melancholy state. The trek to the mountains had passed in near-total silence, Laurants had not been able to put his thoughts into words. He didn’t know how to tell her that he could understand how she felt, not without sounding patronizing. Instead, he said nothing and focused on the mission at hand.

Thornton had called the mission suicide, and Laurants suspected that she was right. Even if he and Shaw found the ExoArmors, by then it was very likely that the aliens would have killed every other human on the planet, making any resistance all but pointless. Instead, he knew that Shaw’s objective was to simply destroy the ExoArmors to deny them to the aliens, after which she and Laurants were expendable.

Continuing the climb, Laurants tried to focus on the art of moving up the face of the mountain. He had to admit that it was tricky, but once he had a rhythm it became easier. He could see that Shaw had also gotten the knack of climbing, moving with a grace that Laurants could not imitate. “If you don’t mind my asking, do you have much climbing experience?” Laurants asked Shaw, hoping that he didn’t snap her concentration.

“I used to go climbing when I was a teenager. My mother was stationed in San Diego, so I’d go up to the mountains during summer vacation from school. Of course, those mountains weren’t this hard,” Shaw grunted as she hauled herself up then carved out another handhold. “It’s just like riding a bike.”

“I guess I didn’t figure you for the outdoors type.”

“I did a lot of things when I was young,” Shaw replied. “I was always willing to try anything once. How about you, Jack?”

“I guess I never had time to do too much, with school and hockey to keep me occupied. I only had about two months off a year, I’d usually spend those fishing or hiking. There wasn’t anything too exciting ever happening in Wolf Bluff.”

Shaw stopped climbing, taking a brief rest. “I would have liked to live in a small town, but my parents were always on the move until I entered the Academy. I hated having to make a new set of friends every year, so I guess doing things like mountain climbing was just a way to make the best of the situation. Before I was twenty I had probably seen more of the world than some people ever do.”

“Is that why you decided to leave Earth?”

“Maybe a little, but I always enjoyed staring up at the stars. They were so beautiful, so alive, I wanted to be up there with them.” Shaw chuckled coldly, “So here I am, back on the ground.”

“It’s not your fault, Lisa, there wasn’t anything that you could have done.” How false that sentiment sounded to his own ears!

Shaw’s voice was tinged with barely-suppressed rage, “You might be right, but it doesn’t change anything. The crews of the Pioneer and Explorer were my responsibility. No matter the circumstances, their blood is on my hands. It always will be.” Shaw tore her claws into the mountain furiously, tearing away a large chunk of rock. Shaw hauled herself up, leaving Laurants to curse himself for saying something so stupid. He slowly followed her, wishing that there was something he could do to take away the guilt that Shaw was feeling, but he of all people knew that there was nothing that could be said to take the pain away.

***

“What have you to report?” S’Olonny asked his second-in-command.

“We have tracked the craft launched by the enemy vessel before its demise, to various landing sites across the planet. Our sensors are tracking several groups of the enemy across one of the planet’s continents,” S’Segar reported.

S’Olonny stared at the sensor display, following the movement of the enemy. “How many of them are deployed on the planet?”

“Our readings cannot determine a precise amount, but our estimate is two to three hundred.”

“A formidable force, but it is not nearly enough. Can we determine where these groups are heading?”

“Not yet, sir, should I order transports to begin collection procedures?”

“Send one platoon and one collection group to eliminate each group of the enemy,” S’Olonny tapped S’Segar on the shoulder. “We will make them pay for their mistake in revealing themselves.”

“Yes, sir,” S’Segar nodded..

“You said our readings can not determine the foe’s exact numbers?”

“Yes, sir, our sensors might have incurred some residual damage from the attack.”

“Then I want you to have all of our scouting teams deployed to the surface. They are to track down any trace of potential bio-energy, we will not to waste anything on this mission, is that clear?”

“I understand, sir.” S’Segar hurried off to relay the orders, leaving S’Olonny to stare at the sensor readings. Whoever was in charge of the enemy had made a grave mistake in their planning. S’Olonny would see to it that they paid for the error in judgment.

***

Rosaro signaled for the entire column to halt as the humans came upon a dried-up riverbed. Large boulders lined the banks of what had been a mighty river, but now was only hard-packed gray dust. “This is spooky,” Davis whispered to Rosaro. “What happened to the river?”

Rosaro shrugged, “Who knows, there could have been an earthquake or something to change the river’s course. That’s not our concern now.” Rosaro looked around the area then ordered Davis, “Take a team up ahead and secure the opposite bank, make sure no surprises are waiting for us.”

Davis nodded, motioning for Private Ramirez and Corporals Cromwell and Hoffman to follow him. Thornton and the Explorer crew crouched behind boulders, watching the four Fifth Platoon members cautiously begin to cross the riverbed. Davis suddenly signaled for the scouting party to stop, an eerie silence hanging over the dried-up river. Thornton watched in nervous fascination as Davis seemed to cock his head to one side, his face a mask of concentration. Thornton tightened her grip on the pistol in her hand, feeling the sweat building up on her palms and noting the worried looks on the other Explorer crewmembers.

Davis raised his left hand in the air and then took a step backwards, the other men in the scouting party following suit. Carefully, the scouts began to back away towards Rosaro and the rest of the platoon. Thornton could see Rosaro motioning to the rest of her troops, then the Fifth Platoon rose up as one and opened fire towards the opposite bank. The scouting party turned and ran as the shots sizzled through the air. At first Thornton could see nothing on the other side of the river, then she saw at least a dozen red helmets pop up over the rocks.

Thornton wanted to cry out, to give some warning, but she could only watch as the alien warriors opened fire, shots tearing into two backs of the fleeing scouting party. Hoffman and Ramirez dropped to their knees, Hoffman remaining still while Ramirez slowly tried to crawl forward. Davis and Cromwell spun around, Cromwell firing a steady stream from his rifle while Davis gathered up Ramirez in a fireman’s carry and dashed towards the safety of the riverbank.

Rosaro and the rest of the platoon continued to provide cover fire, most of the shots going harmlessly overhead or being absorbed by the heavy boulders the aliens were using for cover. Davis charged through a gap in the rocks, gently laying Ramirez on his side just a few feet from where Thornton and the other Explorer crew members hid. “Do you know first aid?” Davis asked Thornton quickly.

“Some,” she replied nervously.

“See what you can do for him,” Davis said, tossing Thornton a medical kit.

Ramirez opened his eyes, looking up at Davis he rasped, “Sarge, am I going to make it?”

Davis patted the private gently on the shoulder. “Of course you are, Deivi. No one leaves this outfit without my say-so.”

Ramirez smiled, a tired smile coming to his face. “Thank-you, sir.” Davis nodded then slowly made his way over to Rosaro, staying under the protection of the rocks to avoid being a target for an alien soldier.

Thornton examined the wounds in Ramirez’s back: two shots had burned clean through the private’s body armor and torn deeply into his flesh. After removing Ramirez’s armor, Thornton scanned the wounds with a compad, her expression turning grim. One of the alien shots had hit Ramirez in the left lung, causing internal bleeding that there was no way to contain without cutting the young soldier open and performing surgery. Thornton’s training had covered only minor injuries, there was no way that she could repair the damage.

“How bad is it?” Ramirez asked, coughing up a glob of blood as he spoke.

Thornton knelt down in front of Ramirez, not wanting to see the look in his eyes, but knowing that she had to. “It’s bad, very bad. I’m afraid that you have internal injuries that…that we can’t repair. I’ll give you something to make you comfortable, but…I’m sorry,” Thornton’s voice faltered, tears running down her cheeks.

“So I’m going to die?”

“Yes,” Thornton answered, not knowing what else she could say.

“Oh God,” Ramirez moaned, his breathing becoming shallow. Thornton filled a syringe with painkillers and injected it into the young man’s arm, hoping that the medicine would at least allow Ramirez to die without suffering. “Tell…tell my mom that I’m sorry,” Ramirez coughed, trying to get more out, but it only came out as a wheeze.

“I will,” Thornton replied, taking Ramirez’s hand. She could then only watch helplessly as he slipped into unconsciousness and the last breath escaped from his body.

***

“Hoffman’s down, Ramirez is in bad shape,” Davis reported to Rosaro.

“Damn!” Rosaro cursed. “We walked right into an ambush.”

“They must have some way to hide from our sensors,” Davis replied, checking the charge in his rifle.

“Right.” Rosaro looked her platoon over and sighed. “This is going to be a stand-off unless we can flush them out. You and Dougie use the missile launchers and see if you can’t take out those rocks. If we can take away their cover, they’ll be ours.”

Davis nodded, moving down the line to find Private Flanders and enact Rosaro’s plan. Meanwhile, Rosaro had Cromwell communicate to the others to hold their fire until Davis and Flanders destroyed the rocks, there was no sense wasting ammunition that they might need later.

Davis and Flanders loaded and armed the missile launched with learned practice, steadying themselves so that they could absorb the recoil of the weapon. Davis counted down from three, then both missile launchers opened fire, the two missiles turning a pair of boulders into fragments. Rosaro opened fire before the dust had cleared, unsure if she had hit anything, but when the dust finally settled, six alien soldiers lay still on the ground. A barrage of lasers hit the boulder Rosaro was hiding behind, she could feel the rock begin to warm from the energy. Once they had reloaded the missile launchers, Davis and Flanders fired again. Another five alien bodies were sprawled in the dirt, the remaining alien warriors, realizing that they had no other option, charged towards the human line. The Fifth Platoon, and even some of the Explorer crew, began to pour on the fire until the last aliens were put down.

“Cease fire!” Rosaro shouted and moved down the riverbank to where the alien bodies lay. After making sure that none of the enemy still lived, Rosaro trudged back to the other humans. “Let’s salvage what we can and get out of here. We’ve got to make another twenty klicks before morning.”

Davis made his way over to where Thornton knelt next to Ramirez’s corpse and put a hand on her shoulder. “You did the best you could under the conditions,” Davis whispered.

“But it wasn’t enough,” Thornton spat back angrily. “If there had been a real doctor, he could have made it.”

“It’s not your fault…”

“I know that!” Thornton snapped, rising to her feet. “It’s their fault!” She motioned towards the red-armored alien bodies in the riverbed. Before Davis could say something, Thornton stomped away, tears still staining her eyes. Once the humans moved out, Davis could see Thornton staring at the makeshift litter bearing Ramirez. There was a haunted look in her eyes, causing Davis to shake his head. She shouldn’t be here, he thought to himself. Someone so young, so innocent, doesn’t belong here.

The humans finally reached the relative safety of a forest nine hours later. The ground had turned soft as the wastelands gave way to the marshes and swamps near Alligator Bay, allowing Ramirez and Hoffman to finally be laid to rest. There were few words spoken, just a short prayer before the weary Alliance soldiers moved on another kilometer to camp for a few hours.

Rosaro sank down against a gnarled old tree, glad for the chance to rest her aching body. More than physical fatigue, she felt the mental fatigue at having lost two men. Even though twenty of the enemy had been killed, Rosaro could not help but feel that the battle had been anything but a victory. The aliens could afford some attrition, with their ship overhead they still had access to more troops, weapons, and materiel while she was cut off from the other human units and had no replacements for her casualties.

Even if her platoon made it to the rendezvous, the situation would be little different. The humans had no reinforcements, no reserves, and no capability to resupply. The enemy could bide its time, sniping at the Alliance forces until there was nothing left. For the hundredth time she wondered if Wallace’s plan was sound, if perhaps more guerrilla tactics would not be more effective. She refused, however, to believe that Shaw’s plan had been the answer. Chasing after ExoArmors that may or may not be functional through deadly mountains would only whittle down her platoon even further.

Rosaro cracked a weary smile, “Thanks, Al.” Then her expression turned serious once again. “Do you think we’re doing the right thing here?”

“Not exactly what I wanted to hear, but you’re right. Good-night Al.”

“Good-night Manny.” Davis disappeared in the darkness, leaving Rosaro to try to get some sleep. It was times like this, when it was absolutely silent all around her, that Rosaro almost missed the buzzing of Mexico City twenty-four hours a day. Even the sounds of gunshots and wailing sirens were better than only the sound of her breathing. The first month of basic training, Rosaro had nearly gone without sleep because she could not get used to the silence of the barracks. In the run-down homes, alleys, and even sewers where she had sought refuge growing up were always filled with noise, until it had become a sick lullaby to her.

Perhaps the noise was just a reminder that all around there was still life, or maybe that there was much more out there than she could see. She had never known her parents, as an orphan on the streets of Mexico City the only way to survive was to join one of the many gangs. The one that had “adopted” her, Los Serpientes, or “The Snakes” had been relatively lenient in allowing her to go to school and have other outside activities. The major gangs operated on a more severe philosophy, forcing their members to work solely for the benefit of the “family”, as the gangs liked to call themselves. For that reason, almost every night there was a border skirmish, a new offensive, or a payback raid that kept the night air humming with the sounds of guns, screams, and sirens.

This planet, however, was so eerily silent. Other than the trees, plants, humans, and aliens there was nothing alive here. Not a single bird, a single animal, not even a single insect buzzing through the air. Rosaro had only been to a swamp once, during maneuvers in Louisiana, but she knew that they were a breeding ground for all sorts of creatures. That there was currently no sound, except for the snoring off a few of her soldiers, attested to the lack of life all around. Rosaro did not have the opportunity to think about it earlier, but as she tried to sleep, she could not help but feel unnerved by it. If no indigenous animals could survive on the planet, what chance did humans have? It was a long time before Rosaro drifted off to sleep.

***

Thornton was having trouble sleeping as well. A white fog was starting to roll in from the bay, the darkened tops of shadowy trees rapidly being rendered invisible. The foreboding scene characterized Thornton’s mood as she thought back to the battle. The image of Ramirez dying, his eyes pleading for her to do something to help him, was burned into her mind.

Ramirez was just another person she couldn’t help, it seemed that was the story of her life. Her entire childhood had been spent in snobby boarding schools, shut away from the real world. Once she ran away to the Academy she thought she would start helping people, to stop living such a selfish existence, but it hadn’t worked out that way so far. Despite the praise she had received, she had done little to help Laurants and the Gibraltar. She had taken the wounded from the Explorer to sickbay, but she doubted any of them had made it to the escape pods. Later, she had stood idly by while Dumas died and Laurants convinced Shaw to get in the escape pod. Staring into the fog, Thornton knew that she had done nothing to help anyone in her life.

Tears started to come, but she did nothing to try stopping them. She felt so out of place here, so powerless, so useless to everyone. There were real heroes like Laurants and Davis, who saved lives, who made a difference. Thornton stripped off her uniform jacket, staring at the garment for a long time. It was covered in dirt, soot, and blood, a testament to all those she had failed to help. Wadding up the jacket, Thornton hurled it into the fog, then buried her face in her hands.

She suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder and heard Davis whisper, “It’s all right.” She looked up at him and saw the concern in his eyes. It was concern, she knew, for whether or not she could keep going, or if her spirit was broken.

“I’m sorry,” Thornton replied, wiping her eyes.

Davis sat down next to her, holding his rifle upright between his legs. “You’ve been through a lot today, it’s okay to cry.”

“It’s just that…I keep thinking there was something I could have done.”

Davis shook his head, “I saw the wound, there was nothing any of us could have done, not without getting him to a field hospital. Even then it would have been tough.” Davis took off his helmet, and for a moment he and Thornton just sat in silence. Finally, he said, “I’ve been soldiering for almost twenty years now, and it never gets easier to lose somebody. I knew Deivi pretty well, I even met his mom a couple of years ago, but I can’t let his death destroy me. There’s still a job to do, and plenty of time to grieve when it’s done.”

“I guess so,” Thornton sniffled.

“I know you won’t feel much better in the morning, but try to get some sleep anyway. It’s going to be another busy day tomorrow, I’m sure,” Davis groaned as he got to his feet, heading back into the fog from whence he came.

“I don’t think I can make it,” Thornton called to his back.

Davis turned around, a sad smile coming to his face. “The first week Lieutenant Rosaro was put in charge of the Fifth, she said the same thing to me. Sometimes we don’t know how strong we are, until we’re tested.”

Thornton watched Davis disappear, then closed her eyes and tried to sleep. The sergeant’s words did little to ease her mind, but she eventually fell into a fitful slumber. She woke up just before dawn, her body drenched in a cold sweat. In her dreams she saw Ramirez, Dumas, and Laurants being torn apart by giant alien warriors while she could only stand by and watch. There was another hour or two before the humans would set out once again, but Thornton knew that she couldn’t go back to sleep. In her dream, just before she woke up, she had looked down and realized that it was not the aliens killing Ramirez, Dumas, and Laurants, but herself that had ripped them to shreds. Instead of trying to sleep, Thornton just stared into the fog for a long while, wondering if she would be able to ever go back to sleep again.

***

“Our attacks were largely successful,” S’Segar reported to S’Olonny on the bridge of the alien ship. “Only in one instance did our forces not completely wipe out the enemy.” S’Segar pointed to the location on the map where the Fifth Platoon had driven off its attackers.

“If our attacks were so successful, why did one unit fail?” S’Olonny asked.

“We have not been able to determine that yet, sir. There were no survivors from that platoon.”

“Perhaps they have some kind of weapons we have not seen yet. I want them closely monitored.” Examining the map, S’Olonny asked, “Anything from our scouting parties yet?”

“No, sir. The scouting teams are still being transported to the planet.”

“Very well, then. Contact me the moment that any of the scouting units report. I will be overseeing the collection process.” S’Segar nodded, watching S’Olonny stride from the bridge. S’Segar, like most of the crew, always breathed a sigh of relief when S’Olonny’s intimidating presence left the bridge. The captain’s temper was legendary, although S’Segar respected his commander’s passion and dedication to the search for bio-energy. Moreover, as much as S’Segar feared S’Olonny’s violent outbursts, he had to be grateful for S’Olonny saving him from life as a foot soldier. Only a select few hatchlings were taken to be trained as crew for the mighty collection vessel, fewer yet were groomed for work on the bridge. The highest praise S’Segar had been given from S’Olonny was to be made second-in-command of the ship, a testament to the captain’s silent faith in him.

Despite that, S’Segar knew there was a growing rift between he and S’Olonny. It was due in large part to S’Segar’s refusal to practice the old warrior religion that the captain still clung to. Belief in warrior gods and the proper use of a S’Zai had all but died with the launch of the collection vessels. Yet S’Olonny still believed, and had expected his protégé to believe as well. Like most of his generation, though, S’Segar found it hard to believe in gods who would strike their creations with such a cruel fate. With that thought in mind, S’Segar stepped over to the communications station to get status reports from the scouting parties.

***

For Master Scout S’Revlar it was just another of an almost countless number of scouting missions. He had served three tours on collection vessels, visited dozens of worlds, and tracked down hundreds of alien creatures. During any bio-energy collection mission there were always beasts that could not be captured by an ordinary military action. Which meant scouts specially trained to locate and capture anything that contained potential bio-energy were needed. There was, however, no scout as knowledgeable or experienced as S’Revlar.

Examining the sensor readings from the collection vessel and from the transport, S’Revlar had yet to discover any sources of bio-energy that were not already known. “Take us down lower!” S’Revlar commanded the pilot of the transport.

“We are approaching mountains, I dare not take us down any further!” The pilot responded.

“You will do as you are told,” S’Revlar hissed, causing the five other scouts in the transport to flinch. If there was one thing that S’Revlar would not tolerate it was disobedience. Scouting was a dangerous business, those who did not follow orders ended up dead. “Or you will not live to see the end of this day.”

The pilot slowly lowered the transport in closer to the surface, the transport beginning to shake violently from high winds. S’Revlar ignored the rocking, concentrating on the sensors. Even as the pilot of the transport nearly lost control of the craft, S’Revlar focused on his work, finally tapping a section of the sensor map with a claw. S’Revlar pulled out a communicator to contact the collection vessel. “Commander S’Segar, this is Master Scout S’Revlar. I may have located potential bio-energy in the mountains of the northeast continent.”

“How certain are you?” S’Segar asked curtly.

“The reading is faint, but I have detected some sort of metallic alloy. It could be one of the craft that fled the alien warship. I will investigate and report my findings.”

“Very well, Master Scout. I will inform the captain of your mission.”

“Thank-you, Commander.” S’Revlar ended the transmission, tossing the communications device to his second-in-command. “Pilot, you will find a suitable location in these mountains to drop us.” The pilot, already knowing the consequences of protesting the order, began to look for somewhere with enough clearance to land the six scouts.

S’Revlar strapped on his black armor, tightening his helmet for the landing. The armor was heavy, carrying all of the supplies S’Revlar would need to survive for days on the ground, but S’Revlar was used to the weight. The other scouts similarly donned their armor, checking each other to make sure that nothing would come loose. The transport continued to be buffeted by high winds, but S’Revlar easily made his way to the airlock. The pilot fought to steady the transport in the winds, the ship just a few feet above a snow-covered cliff. S’Revlar opened the airlock, looking down at the cliff to find the best spot to land. Struggling to maintain his balance, S’Revlar waited for the transport to stabilize just a bit more, then jumped from the airlock. Tucking his feet against his chest, S’Revlar hit the ground like an armored ball, quickly stopping his momentum by bringing out his arms and legs to drag himself to a stop. Scrambling to his feet, S’Revlar watched the other scouts land without incident. As soon as the last of the scouts had jumped, the transport roared upwards, fighting the winds to gain altitude.

S’Revlar looked around to gain his bearings then headed in the direction of where the sensors had detected a faint bio-energy signature. A map of the area was displayed inside S’Revlar’s helmet, guiding him towards he location indicated by the sensor readings. S’Revlar ignored the cold leaking in through the seams of his armor, concentrating on the mission at hand. Whatever is here, I will find it, he thought. Nothing will stop me.