by John Coon
He approached Sam.
“We got a call about an altercation here at the waterpark. Are you the ones who made the call?”
“You better let us handle this situation, officer,” Sam replied. “This is out of your jurisdiction.”
A fresh scowl appeared on the police officer’s face.
“Who the hell do you think you’re talking to? This is a police matter. Get back inside your vehicle and stay there until we need to take statements from—”
“We don’t have time for this,” Kyra said, cutting him off. “This situation will only spiral further out of control if we let those hybrids escape from this place.”
The police officer jabbed his index finger at her.
“If y’all keep back talking, I’m gonna lock you up faster than a gator swims through a bayou.”
Xttra cracked a sarcastic grin.
“Is that a fact? I count four of us and one of you.”
He wheeled around and faced Xttra.
“Are you threatening me, son?”
“One threat deserves another.”
“Enough!”
Sam pounded his fist on the hood of the Earth Defense Bureau car. Xttra and Kyra both flinched when flesh and bone struck metal and exchanged nervous glances. Neither had seen his temper flare to a degree rivaling this current outburst.
“I am with the Earth Defense Bureau.” Sam locked his eyes squarely on the police officer. “This is a matter of planetary security. For your own safety, hang back and let us handle this situation.”
The officer cast a sideways glance at their car. EDB adorned the side in bold block lettering, mirroring how the word police covered the side of his own vehicle. His brows knit together, and he sighed.
“Let me see some ID.”
“What?” Sam cast a nervous glance toward the waterpark fence. “Are you serious?”
“Look at me.”
All eyes turned to Xander. His fingers wrapped around a stun pebble, telegraphing his plan for the rest of the group who understood what he intended to do. Xttra quickly averted his eyes as Sam protested with a shout. A blinding flash followed a few seconds later. When Xttra opened his eyes again, the local police officer had dropped to his knees. He buried his eyes inside his hands while he cursed at them.
“Nice work,” Kyra said. “Bind his arms and legs and shove him back inside his Earthian vehicle.”
Sam just shook his head repeatedly, after opening his eyes again, while Xander carried out her orders. He bound the officer with restraints, shoved him across the backseat of his vehicle, and sealed the door behind him.
“Relax,” he said, facing Sam. “Your fellow Earthian won’t experience permanent blindness.”
“That’s not my main concern,” Sam said.
Kyra and Xttra struck out in front, both holding thermal trackers. Xttra reduced the range on his tracker to encompass only the waterpark and immediate surrounding area. Three heat patterns popped up inside the park. All human or humanoid. One lay on the ground. Two others were still upright and moving.
Vivid orange and yellow streaks painted clouds flanking the Earthian sun as it dipped low on the horizon, foretelling the arrival of night. Retreating sunlight invited lengthening shadows to emerge from buildings, the perimeter fence, and odd towering structures inside the park he had never seen before. Xttra’s eyes darted about as he passed through the park gate. Two Earthians lay in crumpled heaps on the ground. One, a lanky man, had half-open lifeless eyes and a blood-soaked shirt. The other, a petite woman, let out an anguished moan and went silent. Blood pooled out from under her chest.
Sam dashed over to her side and pressed his fingers against the woman’s throat. He flashed a somber frown and shook his head.
“She’s dead.”
Kyra’s expression hardened into a determined scowl.
“I’m closing in on one of our hybrids.” Her voice barely rose above a whisper. “A heat pattern is climbing upward toward an enclosed tube ahead.”
“That’s a waterslide,” Sam said. “Be careful. If they’re around a slide, they will have the high ground against us.”
She nodded and unholstered her speargun. Xttra simultaneously drew out his eliminator. Kyra glanced over at Xander and Sam and motioned for them to split off. She pointed at a building next to the main gates.
“Track down the hybrid hidden inside that building.”
“The ticket office?” Sam replied.
Kyra nodded a second time. She stuck the tracker back in her pouch and tossed him an eliminator. Sam caught it with both hands and stared at the weapon.
“Let’s end this right now.”
Xander and Sam split off and headed toward the ticket office back door. Kyra and Xttra continued forward at a deliberate pace toward the structure Sam called a waterslide. Two of these structures stood near one another. One slide, built from yellow plastic, started from a high platform with guard rails and coiled toward the ground in a tight spiral. The tube straightened out near the bottom and stopped at the edge of a shallow pool. The second slide resembled a giant green tube winding over and under the yellow slide. It also straightened out before reaching the same pool.
Xttra carefully studied his surroundings as they neared the pool. It was not a natural pool. The water rested inside an artificial depression. A white pavement covered all sides and the bottom. Similar pavement blanketed the entire ground inside the fence.
He glanced down at the tracker. It showed a heat pattern on the stairs leading to the high platform at the start of the yellow slide.
“On the stairs.” Xttra pointed skyward. “Block the hybrid’s escape route.”
Kyra crept toward the bottom stair, her speargun pointed straight ahead. A shot rang out. She crouched down and ducked behind a support beam. Xttra also ducked behind another support beam and stared upward. Cliff stood atop the platform, aiming an Earthian weapon at their position below. The weapon reminded Xttra of Kevin’s old rifle, only it featured parallel metallic tubes for high velocity projectiles instead of a single tube. His face showed distinct signs of developing hybrid features.
“You alien bastards don’t know when to leave us alone,” he shouted. “Get back in your spaceship and go back to your own damn planet.”
“I plan to go home,” Xttra replied. “Just as soon as we’ve dealt with you and your hybrid friend here.”
He fired an eliminator bolt at the platform. It struck the surrounding railing. Cliff flinched at sparks spraying out from the metal. He ducked and swung his weapon toward the support beam. Xttra dropped behind the beam a second time.
At once, Kyra’s arca vox beeped inside a pouch on her belt. She pulled it out and activated the holoscreen. A bouncing blur appeared in place of a distinct, solid image. Shouting voices blasted through the arca vox. Their words were partially muffled, but their fear came through loud and clear.
A door flew open. Both Xander and Sam sprinted from the ticket office. Sam haphazardly fired his borrowed eliminator while glancing back over his shoulder. Xander’s right arm hung limp and his speargun was missing. He ripped a Cassian fire shell from his pouch, pressed the detonator button on top, and lobbed the cylinder back at the door. Blue-white flames ignited and billowed through the open doorway.
Exterior lights atop towering metal posts along the perimeter fence sprang to life. Other cars with flashing lights and sirens entered the paved lot outside the fence. Sam cocked his head toward the oncoming vehicles.
“We’ve got company,” he said.
At once, Norah leapt through the wall of flame. She charged toward Sam and Xander with the determination of an angry sapinoa. A stinger popped out from her left forearm, and she bared jagged fangs. Her appearance was enough to induce a few nightmares. Kyra stepped out from her hiding spot behind the support beam and fired at the hybrid. The spear head’s laser ed
ge grazed Norah’s right shoulder. She unleashed a fearsome yowl.
It did nothing to slow her down.
A second shot rang out from the platform above their position. An empty shell rolled off the platform and struck the ground. Kyra dived behind the support beam again. She winced and grasped her left arm. When she pulled her hand away, blood coated the palm.
“My flex armor didn’t fully absorb the impact from that projectile.” Her voice grew strained while she leaned back against the beam and clutched her upper arm again. “Blast that wretched thing off that platform.”
Xttra peeked out from behind the adjacent support beam and fired multiple eliminator bolts in rapid succession. The first bolt struck the railing. The second one found its mark. Cliff clutched his left leg and let out a shout. He staggered toward the winding yellow slide and ducked inside the narrow tube.
Norah reached Xander and Sam before Xttra had a chance to impede her progress. She barreled into both men. The borrowed eliminator flew out of Sam’s hand. All three splashed into a shallow pool below the slides.
Water churned around them as Xander struggled with Norah. With an injured arm, he proved no match for the hybrid. She plunged her stinger through his spine and shoved his head under the water. Xander kicked and flailed his arms trying to free himself.
Norah growled and only pushed him down further into the water, attempting to crack his skull on the bottom of the pool.
Xttra sprinted toward the pool, firing his eliminator. A fresh bolt struck Norah in the same shoulder Kyra grazed earlier, forming a smoking hole in both fabric and flesh. The hybrid howled in pain and shouted an unintelligible word at Xttra.
She raised Xander’s head from the water and quickly snapped his neck. The Confederation officer splashed back down into the pool. His lifeless body now floated face down atop the water.
Cliff shot out from the end of the yellow slide and splashed down into the water right after the eliminator bolt struck Norah. He swam toward Sam while the Earth Defense Bureau official scrambled to reach the edge of the pool. Cliff caught Sam by his right ankle just as he scrambled out of the water.
Norah plunged deeper into the shallow pool and swam away from Xttra. He kept sprinting along the water’s edge. She needed to pop out of the water to breathe soon. When the Earthian hybrid resurfaced, he would finish her off.
“Stop! Don’t come one step closer.”
Xttra stopped running and swung his eliminator toward Cliff. He had wrapped Sam up in a chokehold. The same eliminator Kyra lent to Sam earlier now pointed at his left ear. Small puddles formed around their feet.
“I will shoot him if you keep trying to kill us.”
Cliff gave Sam an agitated sideways glance. A wry smile crept across his lips.
“Or maybe I’ll make him endure the same ordeal Norah and I are enduring. And force your hand. You’ll have no choice but to help us.”
Xttra kept his eyes locked on the infected Earthian colonist, not flinching for a second.
“I found one simple flaw in your little scenario. I’m a faster and better shot than you.”
Shouts outside the waterpark fence grabbed Cliff’s attention. He gave the fence a sideways glance. That offered enough of an opening for Xttra. He fired a bolt from his eliminator. A spear head sailed past him at the same time.
Both struck Cliff.
He stumbled and fell forward, knocking Sam to the ground in the same motion. Sam peeled away Cliff’s arm and rolled out from under the infected Earthian. Xttra turned and saw Kyra standing a few steps behind him. Her left arm hung limp and she grimaced as new pain burst through her wounded limb.
Norah sprang from the water. She laid eyes on Cliff’s body sprawled out on the ground and let out an immediate anguished scream. The hybrid charged toward Xttra, intending to impale him with her stinger. He fired more bolts. One shattered the extended stinger. Others pierced her through the chest and belly.
Norah staggered a few steps and finally tumbled to the ground. She crawled over to Cliff’s lifeless body, leaving a blood trail behind her. Tears raced down her cheeks as she lifted her fellow colonist up into a sitting position and hugged him.
Kyra raised her speargun to finish off the dying hybrid. Xttra shook his head and waved her off.
“I just want this nightmare to end.” Norah’s whispered voice broke while she talked to Cliff as though he still heard her. “I want to be me again. I want to be Norah. I want us to enjoy a happy life together again.”
A lump formed in Xttra’s throat when those words reached his ears. He lowered his eliminator and watched in silence as Norah rested her own forehead against Cliff’s forehead. She closed her eyes, clenched her jaw, and mumbled other words Xttra could not discern. The Earthian let out a final pained gasp a second later. Both Norah and Cliff slumped over on the ground, her arms still encircling him.
Each one a victim, in their own way, of Delcor’s past atrocities resurfacing.
“I owe you my life. Thank you.”
Sam pressed his hand against his forehead and drew a sharp breath as he stood on his feet again. Xttra gave him a sharp glance. His eyes trailed down the Earthian’s body. Aside from sopping wet clothing, he spotted nothing out of the ordinary.
“Did the hybrid impale you with her stinger? Concealing any open wounds?”
Sam held out his arms away from his body.
“See for yourself. The only damage I suffered is a few new bumps and bruises. I got off lucky.”
Kyra put away her speargun and shuffled over to him. She glanced up and down, searching for signs of puncture wounds or other similar injuries the dead hybrids may have caused. After a minute, the Confederation pilot stepped back and nodded.
“He’s clean.”
A wave of relief smacked Xttra. He returned his eliminator to its holster.
At once, a loud voice called out to Sam. All three turned to see Agent Wells and his fellow bureau agents approaching with pistols drawn.
“Impeccable timing.” Sam made no effort to conceal his sarcasm. “You’re right on time to clean up this mess.”
Agent Wells frowned.
“The hybrids?”
“Both dead. The threat has been eliminated.”
Agent Wells cracked a smile and shook his head.
“You seriously locked a cop up inside his own cruiser? The Sulphur PD wants your head on a platter.”
Sam shrugged and hinted at a smile of his own.
“Too bad this is all a matter of planetary security. They can’t do anything about it.”
Agent Wells laughed and directed the other agents to go secure the dead bodies. Sam, Xttra, and Kyra started walking back toward the main gates.
“So, I guess you’ll be heading back to Lathos now?” Sam asked, glancing over at Xttra.
“I can’t afford to stay,” he replied. “Every day spent on Earth is a day Calandra is put at further risk.”
Kyra scowled. This time, her wounded arm was not the sole cause for her displeasure.
“We just barely landed on this planet. I’m under strict orders to forge an alliance with Earthian leadership. My hands are bound.”
Xttra returned her scowl and jabbed his finger at her.
“Even traveling at the fastest possible speed, a year will have passed when I lay eyes on Calandra again. How can you deny me a speedy reunion? I helped you. I helped the Earthians. Now it’s time to return the favor.”
Sam extended his hand toward Kyra. She glanced down and back up at him with a confused look.
“We have forged an alliance,” he said. “Your people are welcome to return to Earth in the future. We could use your help in moving forward with our planned extrasolar colony near Alpha Centauri. This isn’t a goodbye. It’s a hello.”
Kyra hesitated. Her eyes flashed over to the pool where bureau agents fished o
ut Xander’s body and then refocused on Xttra.
“What guarantee do I have you won’t imprison me and Cavac on the return journey to Lathos?”
Xttra licked his lips and bowed his head for a moment. He had not easily shaken off Kyra’s earlier cruelty and willingness to threaten and torture him to suit her purposes. She deserved to face justice for her actions. Hearing Sam confirm his worst fears that the Earthians intended to settle planets beyond the Aramus system also did not sit well with him. Odds of other Earthian leaders experiencing a change of heart mirroring the change Sam made were slim at best.
Still, Xttra had to overlook these issues in favor of more pressing concerns. Delcor emerged as his true enemy and the chief sovereign had Calandra in his sights. Xttra needed to do everything in his power to save her.
“You don’t need to worry about me,” he said, lifting his chin again. “Your enemy is now my enemy.”
31
Calandra studied the injector long after the blue light clicked on, and she had withdrawn the twin needles from her forearm. Even as an inanimate object resting in her hand, it mocked her. Taking bone strengtheners stood as an enduring symbol of the cruel role fate played in her life. Each turn fate took proved more vicious than the one that came before, sending her into a bottomless spiral.
She let out an anguished scream and threw the injector against the bathroom wall. The molded outer shell cracked open and scattered in pieces across the floor. Calandra sank to her knees and buried her face in her hands. Tears leaked out from under her palms as her sobs filled the room.
“I can’t handle this burden.” Her words came out in a strained whisper. “I feel so alone.”
Xttra was stolen from her. Alayna was murdered. Calandra despaired at the thought of what other awful things lurked unseen behind the door. Her life was unraveling at the seams. All because their chief sovereign sought to conceal his awful crimes.
