by Ken Bebelle
Cam looked up at Sasha and their eyes met. Some unspoken understanding seemed to pass between them. Mack blew out a breath, frustrated by this latest turn of events.
On the ground, Jonesy stirred, moaning as he regained consciousness. Sasha took a half step backwards, even as Cam turned back to him, gently rousing him.
Jonesy’s eyes opened slowly and he looked around, his gaze passing over all of them, his expression becoming more confused. Jonesy rolled, tried to sit up.
Cam put a hand on his chest. “Sshh. Easy there, soldier.”
Jonesy put his arms up, and seemed to now notice the amputation. He sagged back down to the ground, looking deflated, his eyes fixed on the smoking stump of his right arm. “Not again.”
Tears rolled down Cam’s cheeks and her breath hitched. “I’m sorry.”
Jonesy clasped her hand, gripping it until his knuckles whitened. “Me too.”
Mack to a step forward, only to be stopped by Ripper, outstretched before him. Sasha said, “No, Mack. They’re going to quarantine.”
A hole opened inside Mack’s chest, threatening to suck his breath away. His friends had finally returned, but they were changed. They were hurting, and he couldn’t help them. He slumped against Sasha’s arm.
“Mack.”
He looked up, met Jonesy’s eyes. He had the same blue ring around his irises as Cam. The blue glinted like shards of chipped ice.
Jonesy said, “It’s ok, Mack. We-- I need to be locked up.”
Jonesy’s eyes tracked downwards. Mack followed his gaze, saw where the gleaming titanium of his leg showed through his shredded trousers. When he looked back up, Jonesy’s hard eyes locked onto his.
Jonesy looked back and forth between Mack and Sasha. “When they come back, they’ll be hunting for you. For both of you.”
Acknowledgments
For people who love science fiction,
this book is for you.
I’m grateful to the many people who paved the way so that we could write this book. The indie community taught me so much and their generosity is humbling. There are too many to name, but notably I am grateful to these folks for all the wisdom they’ve shared: Joanna Penn, Mark Dawson, Chris Fox, Shawn Coyne, Tim Grahl, Bryan Cohen, Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and Michael Anderle.
Thank you to my critique group, the Mountain View Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing Group, for your encouragement. Thank you to our developmental editor Julian, a wonderful storyteller himself.
Thank you my family and friends who believed in me, and reminded me that I’ve always been a writer.
~Julia
Many thanks to Julia for reminding me how much I love writing and creating, and for introducing me to the wonderful world of independent publishing. I doubt I could do this kind of collaboration with anyone else.
Thanks to all the great people in the indie community who so generously share their knowledge, which I soaked up like a sponge through many a podcast.
And of course thanks to family and friends who supported me through this very interesting journey that is only just beginning!
-Ken
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Julia Vee is usually stuck in traffic in Silicon Valley. She runs long distances because she can’t seem to help herself. When not chauffeuring the offspring to baseball or kung-fu practice, she can be found working one of two day jobs or writing science fiction.
Sign up to her mailing list at www.juliavee.com and follow her on Facebook @authorjuliavee and Twitter @valleygrrl
Ken Bebelle’s love for all things sci-fi led him to a career in prosthetics, where he was able to find a Real Job. Now his life has come full circle and he’s trying his hand at writing science fiction. He currently lives in Orange County, CA trying to indoctrinate his wife and two monkeys into science fiction and comic books.
Connect with Ken at www.kenbebelle.com and follow him on Facebook @authorkenbebelle
First Contact!
Read how it all began with the Ringheads and Keenan’s mission to the Arctic Circle in
The Needle.
Also available in audiobook.
The Needle is an action-packed first contact story that shares the battle for Earth through two soldiers' eyes.
Josef is having nightmares about the alien tower that dominates the snowy landscape of Antarctica. The alien construct is turning Earth into an icy wasteland, day by day. His world unravels further when the alien tower opens to reveal its occupants.
Keenan is the right guy in the wrong place. He will lead his pack of Union Wolves on the world's first mission to combat the aliens and find out if humanity has the strength to repel the invasion.
The Ringhead aliens have arrived, and they are xenoforming the Earth, sending mankind towards a new Ice Age.
Read this first contact story that kicks off the Cold War.
Coming November 2019!
Alien Exile
Five years after the conclusion of the Battle for Reno…
RUNNING ON EMPTY
Inside a frozen, derelict Ringhead terraforming ship, Cam was sweating like crazy. She slammed a fist into the wall of the hallway, beads of sweat flying from loose strands of her hair before freezing in mid-air. She blew out a breath and hauled back for another strike. This time a satisfying crack sounded.
Finally. Black ice crackled along her hands, stretching past her fingertips to form slender claws. She worked the claws into the crack in the wall and pulled. The dark materials of the wall groaned, vibrations shuddering through her feet, until a jagged chunk peeled away.
The light in the hallway dimmed, stuttered, then flared back to full intensity. Shit. Cam picked up her newly removed section of wall and ran back, passing gaping holes the entire length of the corridor. Ahead, blue-white light spilled from an open hatch. The hallway lights and the light from the room dimmed and flickered in sync.
Crap crap crap! Taking too long!
She flew through the door, the torn wall section clanging on the doorframe as she crashed through. The reactor, or at least, what she thought of as the reactor, dominated the large chamber. She was deep in the central core of the Greedle. Finding this chamber had taken weeks of mapping her way through the inner bowels of the ship.
The reactor formed a central spire that stretched to the peaked roof of the chamber. Dim cyan lights flickered along its length. The structure bulged like an onion in places as it rose to the ceiling. Down at its base it narrowed to the diameter of a life pod, with one access hatch Cam had managed to wrest open. A twisted crowbar now served as the ‘lock’ on the door.
Cam twisted the crow bar out of the way and jammed her twisted section of plating into the core. She slammed the door shut just as the lights began to glow anew. Cam laid her hands on the reactor, willing it to keep firing. Please. A terrible moment of quiet and then a gentle nudge of pressure, like walking into a wall of rubber, pressed into the front of her body. She leaned into the pressure, keeping her hands on the reactor.
Please. In her mind’s eye Ula’s small hand withered to papery bone.
The pressure intensified, threatening to push her away. Cam dug her toes in, feeling her armor widen at her feet, creeping into the ridges of the deck to hold her. The reactor glowed bright blue under her hands.
Work, damn you. Cam imagined Ula’s small fists beating limply against the inside of her tank, her strength melting away. Cam pushed harder.
The pressure vanished, abrupt as a balloon bursting. Cam fell forward and the reactor lit up a spectacular solid blue. She collapsed to her knees, gasping for breath, but she couldn’t rest. She had to know that Ula was safe. She had to keep moving--the babies were counting on her.
Cam hurried through the darkened chamber, keeping her eyes straight ahead. To her left and right, dozens of failed tanks stood in the darkened corners of the room, a horrifying testament to the Ringhead Engineer’s appetite for experimentation. Cam didn’t know what to do with them, but she couldn’t leave
them where the babies could see.
In the center of the lab, a single podium provided light and energy to the last three regeneration tanks. Two smaller units stood closer to the podium. Each one contained a single figure suspended in yellow stasis gel.
On the right, Ula thrashed like she was having a bad dream. The downy feathers on her head and back swayed with the waves in the heavy liquid. The young girl’s brow furrowed, eyes shut, and she clutched her left arm to her side as if in pain.
On the left was...the boy. She couldn’t bring herself to give him a name yet, the thought making her heartsick. Half his body was missing, like someone had taken a massive cleaver to his tiny frame, cutting off the left side of his torso, left arm, and left leg. Swarms of Ringhead regeneration crabs scurried over his torn body, repairing his injuries and assembling prostheses at an agonizing pace. He flailed, arm and leg kicking futilely, eyes open yet unseeing.
Cam stepped to the tanks, placing her hands on the glass. Relief flooded through her as she felt the refreshed reactor finally hit stride, bringing the tanks back to full operation. The boy quieted as the crabs glowed in response to the increased power, returning to capacity.
A thrill of energy shot up her right arm. Ula awoke and pressed herself close to the glass, eyes alight with excitement, her right hand on the glass matching Cam’s. The girl’s brilliant blue irises shone even through the stasis gel. Ula ducked her head down and panned side to side, searching at Cam’s feet.
Cam laughed when Ula’s head popped back up, a look of utter indignation on her face.
:: Sorry honey, no AJ today. I’ll bring her tomorrow.::
The pout continued and Ula lifted her hand from the glass, pinky extended. Cam smiled--God it felt good to smile about something--and raised her hand as well, wiggling her pinky finger. ::Promise. Tomorrow.::
Ula drifted away from the glass, her eyes heavy as the regen system put her back in suspension. Cam put her hand back on the glass and watched her until she stilled.
A rough voice with a Russian accent interrupted her thoughts. ::I say again. You are dura.”
Cam sighed and walked between the two tanks to check on her last ‘baby.’ Ivan floated in the last tank she’d saved, tucked behind the first two. If she had to guess, Ivan was in his late thirties, with a build that spoke of a years of hard labor, not muscular, but wiry strength and hard lines with minimal fat. While she had no issues with Ula and the boy, Ivan’s seeming nonchalance about his nudity always put Cam off a bit.
She looked him in his eyes, the same electric blue as the rest of them. ::I’m a fool for saving the boy’s life?::
She felt him, in her mind, rolling his eyes. ::Ship is failing and you are fixing with bandaids and tape. Risking my life for cripple.::
Cam let her gaze drop, making eyes at his Ringhead legs and then back up again, staring just over his eyebrows.
He brushed his hand over his bald head. The movement scattered a handful of Ringhead worms that had been wriggling over the exposed section of his skull. Today there was only one thin tube connecting his head to the outside of the tank. Apparently his changes were nearly complete.
Ivan drifted to the front of the tank, bending down to look Cam directly in the eyes. Even through the gel his piercing blue irises shone with intensity. ::You know what you need to do.::
Cam rubbed at her temples, suddenly exhausted. ::You don’t know that it will work.::
He pressed his hands into the glass. ::I know better than anyone. No one else on Earth who knows as well as I do.::
Cam conceded that Ivan’s time under the tender care of the Ringhead Engineer had given him more knowledge than she possessed. Funny, when she had been disemboweling the Engineer, it hadn’t occurred to her to study him. That was the difference between her and the cosmonaut. Science was his god. She just cared about saving lives--including her own. She sighed. :Until you can come up with a better argument than that, I’m not going to do it. I’ll find another way.:: Her eyes drifted back to Ula. ::There has to be a better way. For all of us.::
Ivan stood, now looking down his nose at her. ::You’re going to kill her. Your fear will kill us all. Because you can’t face the truth that’s staring you in the face.::
Cam surged forward, slamming her hand into his tank and ringing it like a gong. ::I will find a way! I am a Union Wolf! Impossible is just another day at the office!::
Ivan looked into Ula’s tank, and then the boy's, his eyebrows drawing down into a frown. ::Camila, you have eyes. You must see that we are running out of time.::
He turned his gaze back to Cam, down to her arm. Her hand came up of its own accord, covering the bright light on her forearm. His voice grew hoarse as the system pulled him back to unconsciousness.
"Take the next step, Camila. You are the only one who can do it."
AN ARCTIC FOX
The snow eased up for the first time in weeks. Cam stomped down onto the ice and watched in satisfaction as the dark discs emerged from the soles of her armor. Even without AJ now, Cam was able to modify her armor with small movements and some serious concentration. She took off at a lazy pace, the discs giving her traction and enough surface to run on the snow. The crisp Arctic air kissed the bare skin of her face. The rest of her remained encased in the alien armor.
As she ran under the shadow of the Greedle, the midnight sun blazed brightly above. Cam let her mind wander, and it drifted from one worrisome topic to the next. Her test results from Patel and Beaufort. Kennedy’s latest message. Her secret project in the vat room. Cam tried her latest trick, distracting herself with Eskimo-Aleut lessons. Ataqan, Aalağ, Qaankun, Siching, Chaang. She’d managed to learn how to count to five so far.
About fifty yards ahead of her, a dirty gray wolf bounded over the snow, stalking an Arctic fox. Hoar frost crusted over the wolf’s muzzle and steam billowed out over a lolling red tongue. The tail of the fox waved about in a playful motion, the fox seemingly unaware of the wolf’s approach. This was AJ’s newest trick, hunting and mimicking the local fauna. Cam wondered how long it had been since AJ had fed.
She slowed to a walk, not wanting to disturb AJ. As if matching Cam, the wolf slowed its approach as well, crouching down to better hide in the snow drifts. The wolf’s ribs were easy to pick out, even at this distance. The fox jumped from its burrow in the snow and landed in the next drift of powder, then lost its footing, limping on one paw. The wolf tensed, waiting for the right moment, its hunger driving it forward toward the injured fox. Cam tsked. AJ was just playing with her food now.
Cam crouched and waited as the wolf continued to study its prey. Through her mind link with AJ, rising anticipation and need wrapped a tight line of tension around Cam’s chest.
Here it comes.
The fox’s head popped up in a spray of fine powder, its ears twitching to attention. The wolf pounced, easily clearing the snow drift and racing towards its next meal. Crusted ice cracked as the wolf tore through the snow. The fox bolted, its lithe white form a blur over the dazzling landscape. The dark form of the wolf raced forward, long, powerful legs making the outcome of the race inevitable. AJ was about to get her meal.
The wolf’s shadow overtook the fox. The fox looked back and tripped, sending it tumbling through the snow and fetching up at the base of rock face. The fox shook itself off and crouched, turning to face the oncoming wolf.
Cam sent up a quick prayer. Please, not the dog-shark thing again.
The small white fox launched itself into the air, impossibly high for its short legs. Dull gray leached through the pristine white fur. AJ’s head morphed, growing wide and round. Shit. Where once had been a short snout, the skull flattened out, the eyes vanishing into a gaping maw that grew to impossible proportions. AJ’s legs thickened, ropy gray muscle bursting forth even as a third pair of legs erupted from her midsection. The mouth widened until the creature had no more face, just a cavernous mouth filled with a double row of glistening spike teeth.
No longer the predat
or, the wolf let out a panicked whine of confusion as it tried to scramble to a stop on the icy terrain. Its momentum carried it the last few feet. AJ’s mouth irised open to grotesque size and she landed with her mouth encasing the wolf’s head. Dozens of teeth snapped shut and after a muffled whimper the wolf’s body went limp.
Cam stood and jogged the rest of the distance to AJ. As she reached her, AJ snapped her head up, throat muscles flexing as the last bit of the wolf’s hind leg disappeared into the raw pink mouth. It was getting easier to watch that, but not a lot easier.
AJ’s eyeless head swung around and looked at Cam. At least, looked at her as far as she could tell, since this form had no eyes to make contact with. The head tilted, questioning.
Cam sighed. “Look, I told you, it’s ugly. Pick something else.”
The dog-shark melted and reformed, head and mouth tapering. The dull, rocky gray hide flexed and smoothed, rippling into a luxurious coat of glossy black. AJ’s animal form had no fur, instead thousands of tiny grooves as if she were carved of ebony. The lines of AJ’s body stretched until she wore the form of a vibrantly healthy wolf. Cam’s breath caught in her throat at the sight of the wolf. Magnificent. AJ’s bright eyes, the silvery-blue shade identical to what Cam saw in her own reflection now, regarded her.
Ever since Cam had ‘inherited’ the Yasenevo Star, AJ had grown in both her abilities and intelligence. Cam was starting to wonder if AJ was learning to read her mind. Cam frowned at AJ. “I liked you better as a fox.”
