by John Coon
Kyra steered the Thetian ship closer until it was almost on top of the Earthian vessel. She dodged the cloud of smoke and flames and shot ahead trying to block the other vessel’s descent path. Xttra’s eyes stayed glued to the Earthian ship.
It veered off from its original trajectory and prepared to fire an electromagnetic blast at their ship. Xttra could visibly see the weapons and where they aimed. Kyra was ready this time. She entered a steep climb to dodge the shot. The Confederation pilot then began a descending turn and resumed chasing the Earthians.
At once, a smaller vessel popped into visual range. Xttra instantly recognized the cylindrical body and V-shaped tail. An Earthian attack vessel. It resembled one which tracked his scout ship and another that eventually shot down one of his aerorovers.
Panic flooded his eyes as he glanced over at Sam.
“Your people are going to shoot us down.”
Sam gazed over at the same spot outside the ship where Xttra spotted the attack vessel. A worried frown graced his lips.
“Open a communication channel with the Earth Defense Bureau again,” he said. “We need to move that drone out of our way.”
A tremor shook the bridge. Flames and smoke billowed off from an impact point on the energy shell, sending ripples in multiple directions. Shell integrity held. No Earthian weapons breached their hull.
Xttra did not see from his vantage point if the deep space vessel or the drone, as Sam called it, fired on their ship. Either way, they were in considerable danger.
“I’ll just get rid of your drone,” Kyra said. “It’s getting too crowded up here.”
Sam threw up his arms.
“No! Wait! You can’t do that.”
She cast a sideways glance at him.
“Are Earthians inside the drone?”
“No. But that doesn’t matter. Let me—”
“That’s all I needed to know.”
Sam’s eyes darted toward the holoscreen Kyra used as a guide to retarget her weapons.
“You can’t just blow up a US military drone.”
“Watch me.”
Another ion mine blasted from the belly of their ship. The mine spun straight into the drone’s flight path. An explosion followed, turning the Earthian attack vessel into a sinking metallic ball of flames.
Sam scowled and sank back in his chair.
“This isn’t sending a good message.”
“Trying to blow our ship out of the sky isn’t what I call a friendly message,” Xttra replied. “It sure feels like a familiar one though.”
Cavac spun his chair around and faced the helm.
“The Earthian vessel we tracked from the red planet is dropping in altitude. Estimated landing time based on current speed and trajectory is five minutes.”
Kyra’s frown deepened on her lips.
“Not if I can help it. Get that communication system with the Earthians back online!”
She angled the ship downward and shot toward the ground. An ocean coastline rose to greet their ship. Kyra pulled the ship within visual range of the Earthian vessel again. It veered away from the coastline and approached a forested area in a semi-spiral.
Bolts erupted from the plasma cannon. One missed wildly. Another clipped one of the still intact arms, leaving a cloud of solar panel shards in its wake. The Earthian vessel plunged into the forest. It plowed through branches while disappearing below the treetops.
“Pull back! You’re going to crash into the freeway.”
Panic gripped Sam’s voice. Kyra sighed and pulled the steering stick toward her chair. Xttra glanced down at the ground outside the windshield. Two broad paved roads, divided by a narrow strip of grassy land, cut through the forested area. Cars dotted both roads. Earthian vehicles traveled west on one road and east on the other.
Several cars made sudden stops in both directions. Earthians jumped out of multiple vehicles and held up small rectangular devices aimed at their ship. Kevin brought a similar gadget with him, which he called a smartphone, when he came to Lathos.
“We better find a safe out-of-the-way landing spot before we draw further attention.” Sam also fixed his eyes on the Earthians below the ship. “I’ll get us some help to recover the crashed ship and check for survivors.”
Xttra did not like the sound of Sam’s promise of finding help after seeing an Earthian drone attack their ship. He had no wish to run into more Earth Defense Bureau agents—or soldiers—out here.
None could be trusted.
“Do you actually think they survived a crash landing?” Xander posed his question before Xttra had a chance to voice his concerns. “The odds are not in their favor.”
“We can’t make any assumptions,” Sam replied. “This part of Louisiana will be placed under an emergency Earth Defense Bureau quarantine until this situation is fully contained.”
28
Norah unleashed a ragged cough. Billowing smoke from the engines wafted into her nose and mouth. She blinked open her eyes and squinted at her surroundings.
Giant cracks ran through the cockpit windshield. The glass remained only partially intact following their crash. Norah turned toward her right shoulder. Cliff lay back against his chair. Both eyelids remained shut and his chin dipped down to his chest. Blood oozed from a fresh laceration across his hairline and trailed down his temple.
She popped off her helmet and cast it aside. Norah then removed her glove, extended the same arm, and tenderly lifted his head.
“Wake up.” Her voice had grown strained like a person fighting a raging cold. “Please wake up.”
Cliff let out a slight groan. His eyelids cracked open. A sudden cough followed. He gasped and pressed his hand against his chest.
“I guess it was too much to hope those aliens wouldn’t catch up to us.”
Norah answered him with a forlorn nod. She held out faint hope crippling their ship would slow the aliens down. It did not work out like either she or Cliff wanted.
She let her eyes drift down and settle on her hand. Norah recoiled and instantly let go of Cliff’s chin. Her hand and lips trembled in equal measure while she stared at the limb.
Each finger now sported a jagged claw in place of a normal fingernail.
“I’m a monster.” Tears splashed down Norah’s cheeks anew. “What is this thing I’m becoming?”
Cliff lifted his arm and caressed a lock of her strawberry blonde hair resting against her cheek. One look into his eyes revealed his hidden fear to Norah. But he refused to acknowledge he owned any such feelings toward her.
“You’re no monster.” He mustered a pained smile between labored breaths. “You’re still the same strong, gentle, and beautiful Norah I’ve always known.”
Norah sniffed back tears and flashed a grateful smile. Cliff unlatched the safety belts holding him in place and popped his helmet off. She helped him rise to his feet. Cliff stumbled when Norah let go of his arm and pressed his gloved hand against his forehead.
“Wow. Still a bit woozy.”
He worked to calm his breathing and steadied his other hand against the chair back while he stepped over the seat. A bird chirped beyond the cracked windshield. Norah froze. Her eyes darted back and forth as she tried to pinpoint the bird’s location. She sniffed and turned her head slowly.
Norah licked her lips.
She had to find that bird.
“What are you doing?”
Cliff’s question snapped Norah’s thoughts back to the Magellan. She gazed at him and shook her head.
“I don’t know what came over me. A bird chirped outside, and a sudden urge gripped me.”
“Sudden urge?”
“I wanted to track the bird down and eat it.”
Cliff’s eyes widened at that revelation. Norah was embarrassed to admit such a desire even entered her mind. She lived on a st
rict vegetarian diet since her college days. Her heart told her to leave the bird alone, but a baser instinct compelled her to prey on the innocent creature once she stepped outside their vessel.
“Let’s focus on getting you somewhere safe,” he said. “We can figure out dinner after we’re settled.”
Cliff pressed his shoulder into the exit door and grunted as he forced it open. He pushed the dented and twisted metal aside, creating a narrow opening. Norah approached the edge of the door and peered down at the ground. The crash landing rotated the Magellan to a weird angle. This meant they would need to make an awkward jump down a few feet to reach solid ground.
She turned and cast a worried frown at him.
“Are you sure you can jump down from here without hurting yourself further?”
Cliff shrugged.
“We can’t stay in here.”
He crouched down, braced his hand against the edge of the door, and jumped. Cliff staggered as his feet hit the ground and rolled onto his hip. Norah gulped and took a running jump. She stuck the landing with the ease of a gymnast finishing a routine.
Norah extended a clawed hand and helped him to his feet. Cliff winced as he stood up and clutched his upper left leg. Worry flooded her eyes.
“Are you hurt? Can you walk?”
He answered her with an abrupt nod.
“I’ll be fine. I’m more worried about your condition.”
Norah struck out in front, and they started walking east through the forest toward Sulphur. Her eyes darted back and forth as they snaked past a nearby bayou. Every chirp from a bird or chatter from a squirrel amid the longleaf pines captured her attention. Norah’s belly rumbled. Her tongue rolled over her lips. Such bad hunger pangs.
She needed to eat something.
Anything.
Cliff groaned. Norah stopped and snapped her head back at him. He moved with a noticeable limp as he pushed himself to match her pace. Heavy breaths escaped between his lips. Sweat beaded on his forehead and the muggy air was not the only cause. She turned around and dashed back to him.
“Are you sure you can keep walking with me?’ Norah trailed her clawed fingers over his hair. “You don’t look so good, honey.”
Cliff painted a smile on his lips and nodded.
“I’ll be fine. I promise. I just tweaked my hamstring when I jumped down from the Magellan.”
Norah wrapped her arm around his shoulder and helped take the weight off the affected leg. She slowed her pace to account for Cliff’s limited mobility.
The sun dipped low in the sky, lengthening shadows of surrounding longleaf pine trees, before they reached the forest’s edge. Norah’s hunger pangs grew more intense. Sweat trickled down her forehead while her feet pounded over uneven wild grass and lumpy soil. They had to be near Sulphur now. The Magellan crashed only a few miles outside her hometown. Helping Cliff keep weight off his leg made the journey go slower than she first expected.
Norah’s eyes brightened. A wooden telephone pole peeked out from the treetops ahead of her. They had reached the edge of town. Now they could search for some food and, hopefully, find a kind stranger willing to offer them temporary shelter. She and Cliff needed time and space to track down someone who possessed the necessary knowledge to restore her body to its original human form.
Trees soon yielded to a grassy yard surrounding a long rectangular house. One end faced a one-lane asphalt road. The other end led back into the forest where they crashed. Water bubbled and churned inside an enormous stock pot sitting atop a portable propane-fueled burner in the yard. The burner was set up a few feet from a picnic table covered with a rough tablecloth.
Norah sniffed when she spotted the stock pot. Saliva moistened her lips. Her belly rumbled anew. She knew that pot brimmed with crawfish, potatoes, and corn without looking inside. Norah could practically taste the Cajun seasoning from the edge of the yard.
They had stumbled upon a backyard crawfish boil.
Cliff ducked out from under her arm and limped over to the picnic table. Norah’s breathing intensified as she crept toward the stock pot.
Loud barks greeted her ears. She froze and jerked her head toward the back end of the house. A black Labrador stood behind a closed screen door, alerting the entire neighborhood to her presence.
Norah held out her hand.
“Be quiet,” she pleaded. “Be a good dog.”
Her eyes darted over to neighboring backyards and back to the screen door. No sign of any neighbors or the dog’s owners yet.
Norah only wanted to grab a little food for her and Cliff and find a hiding place before any search parties tracked them down. That noisy irritating black lab dog had no intention of letting it happen.
“Be quiet, you stupid mutt.”
A faint growl followed Norah’s words this time around. The dog backpedaled from the screen door and barked even louder.
“Judd, can you go see what’s bothering Meaux?” an unidentified woman’s voice inside the house intercut the barking. “He won’t quit yapping.”
“I was just heading out to check on the crawfish.”
A bald man with a trimmed beard, clad in overalls, popped open the screen door. The dog bounded past his burly legs and charged toward Norah. His barking grew more relentless. Judd’s mouth dropped open when he laid eyes on her.
“Holy shit.”
Her heart pounded as his dog Meaux closed the gap. A stinger popped out from the underside of her forearm. It mirrored the one that hybrid stabbed her with on Mars. She bared fangs and let out a savage growl.
Judd jerked his head toward the screen door.
“Grab my shotgun, Beth.” Panic gripped his voice. “We got a … I don’t know what the hell it is. You better come quick.”
Norah lunged forward and snapped her teeth at the dog. Meaux backpedaled before her stinger came close enough to impale him. He kept barking as he backed away, before running off to hide.
“Good God. What in the hell are you?”
Beth stood at the open screen door behind Judd. Her hands trembled as she tried to load shells into a shotgun. An explosive rage gripped Norah from her head down to her toes when she laid eyes on the weapon. They intended to shoot her.
Not if she could help it.
Norah retracted the stinger and dropped to all fours. She galloped toward the couple and sprang off her feet as she reached Judd. The stinger popped out from her forearm a second time and she plunged it straight into his belly. Judd gasped. He clutched his belly and stumbled forward. Fresh blood oozed between his fingers. He staggered a few steps and fell face first in the grass.
Beth snapped the shotgun barrel back in place. Norah lunged at her and swatted the weapon out of the woman’s quivering hands. She knocked Beth to the ground and perched atop her chest. Saliva dripped from Norah’s mouth, and she panted. Her right hand wrapped around Beth’s right arm and pinned the limb to the cement pad outside the screen door.
Beth kicked out her legs and jerked her shoulders, trying to free herself from Norah’s grasp. She clenched her teeth and lifted her head off the ground. Tears streamed down her face.
“Please let me go. I don’t want to die.”
A fierce higher-volume growl escaped Norah’s lips.
“Then you shouldn’t have tried to shoot me.”
She rammed the stinger into Beth’s gaping mouth and out through her upper neck. The woman gagged and then fell silent as blood dribbled off her lips and down her chin. Norah stared at the lifeless body with hardened, feral eyes. At once, a hand grabbed her shoulder.
“Norah! What are you doing?”
She sprang to her feet and swung the bloody stinger around. Norah jabbed her arm forward without thinking. Cliff groaned. He stumbled backward and clutched a fresh puncture wound on his upper arm.
Norah blinked. Her eyes and brow softened.
Both lips trembled and tears washed away the feral rage occupying her eyes moments earlier.
“I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
Norah retracted her stinger a second time and started toward him. He grimaced and backed up a few steps.
“You’re changing so fast, honey.” Pain bombarded both his arm and his words. “I don’t think I can stay safe with you any longer.”
Norah pinched her eyes shut and wiped away tears with her clawed hand. Why did she hurt Cliff? How could she do this to the man she loved so much? She did not mean to attack him. Her instincts drove her to lash out like a wild animal when she felt his hand touch her before she realized it belonged to Cliff. He never wavered from trying to help her from the time they fled Mars until now, even while everyone else wanted to put her in quarantine or simply kill her.
“I’m so sorry,” Norah’s eyes popped open again. “Please don’t leave me. I don’t want to be alone.”
“You just murdered two people, Norah.”
“They were going to shoot me. You saw it. I had no choice. I had to defend myself.”
Cliff bowed his head. He bit down on his lower lip for a moment and winced. Norah’s eyes trailed over his wounded arm. She grasped the limb and quickly ripped open his spacesuit around the area her stinger penetrated with her claws.
Norah pressed her hand to her mouth.
Purplish swelling already began forming in his flesh surrounding the puncture wound. She must have injected him with venom in the same manner that horrible alien creature infected her back on Mars. This meant an awful new reality faced them now.
Cliff would transform into a humanoid monster.
Just like her.
“You have to stay with me,” Norah said. “You’re going to go through the same changes as me. We have to keep helping each other survive.”
He raised his head and stared at her. Tears brimmed in his eyes as he grew resigned to his new fate.
“What do we do now?”
Norah glanced at the darkening evening sky and back at him. Streaks of orange and red painted scattered clouds as the sun dipped toward the expansive horizon.
