First Contact: Book One in The Deepening Series (A Space Rock Opera Romance Adventure)

by Kelly Brewer

  “Oh Lord, help us…” was all Mark could say.

  The show had been an overall success. Time to jump.

  Whatever caused this was still nearby. They sensed it.

  Switching to Dock’s ship felt unsafe and would take too long. Moving would expose them unnecessarily. They all wanted to get away as soon as possible.

  “Angel, get us out of here. Now.”

  When the ship gained transfer orbit and before he toggled, Angel bowed his head in silent prayer. Mynas and Bonbon both put their hands on a weeping Lulu and she quieted.

  Everyone instinctively relaxed for the jump to Uranus.

  CHAPTER 75

  Die Now!

  The distortion Mooney had seen was still nearby. It wavered inconspicuously above the dome of Saturn Stadium, watching the Mechanix “Witch-craft” leave Sacred Saturnalia and its sixty-three moons in a cloud of debris, ejected just before it disappeared.

  The creature crackled forth raw, like 10,000 cat lightning, pulsing dissonant racket hyper-dimensionally.

  Its lament received a universal response.

  “The Way!!!!! MUSSZZTTT !!! be cleanSSzzzd-d!!”

  “On-Looker tune’z Time-sight T R U E !”

  “One-Moon Earthmen have re-dizcovered the *ZIZ*!

  “They return… to szzzwallow… Ninth-home. And then Tenth!”

  “Only the faltering One-Moon savage CAN… reveallll uzzzzzz…”

  “The Curzzz-ed One must dieEEE! now!”

  “He… izzz….clozzze…he isszzz marked!”

  “The Curzz-ed One eludes The Hawk…”

  “If the ally failzzZZ, the Treazure of Neptune-ia iszz plunder!!”

  “Water-demounzz will devour uzzz!”

  “Men will never ceassszszszze conszumption.”

  “It is The Time of Utmost Diszcordance.”

  “Zzzoon, ALL will be… zero.”

  “The end of All Life-Frequenciezzz.”

  “A Time-bound asszzzault quorum iszzz called.”

  “Intermingle with us, On-Looker.”

  Elevating into the nexus of time-sight interchange, the On-Looker’s full time-sight quorum slid into focus and every alien scattered throughout the cosmos was connected “In Family.”

  Communication in an audible frequency was no longer necessary: it could see/reach/vibrate unto all star-scattered Ziz*kin, and they could feel/tune-in the common frequency of the On-Looker, Master of Serenity, which was no longer serene.

  “ZiZ?” All.

  “ZiZ?” All!

  “Orders.”

  “Amass ye beneath Father Sky, Seventh from the Sun, father of twenty-seven daughters.

  Fill yourselves. Fill.

  Vaporize deep from Father Uranus’ frozen fire ice, fill, then belch your flames into the water of the Accursed One… and all men!!

  Split and burn all human coliform hosts!!”

  Split.Burn…

  Split.Burn…

  Split.Burn…

  The order had been given.

  If possible, this time, mankind was to be finally eradicated. The benefits of covert coexistence with human mammals were gone. An advancing human horde were unknowingly plundering precious Ziz resources, planet by planet. Humanity’s environmental pressure on the ancient, dwindling race of aliens was hastening their slow, inevitable demise.

  The On-Looker descended the Nexus Throne, ending quorum and addressing its one attendant, “The Hawk’s Cull is insufficient. Serenity is broken. Pray and resonate that we are in time to preempt the Utmost Discordance.”

  The Accursed One still eluded them and men were fast closing upon a vast resource: the burial waters of Neptune-ia.

  Only the On-Looker knew that this dreaded war had been initiated too late.

  Both life-forms now faced annihilation.

  CHAPTER 76

  ALIENS MY ASS

  Mooney was plagued with misgivings.

  The Uranus event was in six hours. It had been twenty-four hours since the Saturn incident. He’d used every minute to make his case but wasn’t making much headway. The delegates had agreed to hear Mooney’s testimony, and Dock had sent Gina.baby as his mouthpiece to give his counsel.

  Mooney went first. “Put Uranus Universal Airfield on lockdown now! Do a news conference. Tell everyone what’s happening. There is a dangerous life-form in our midst. I think I’ve seen it! Everyone out here is at risk. We need to gather all troops here, immediately. We all tighten up or suffer.”

  Delegation leaders mumbled and grumbled. No one was used to doing anything quickly or nontraditionally. Every move had to be thought through extensively, planned, and methodically executed. The slightest mistake could be catastrophic. Any defensive action would have to be carefully considered.

  The leadership’s inaction added a manic sense of urgency to the frantic detective’s presentation.

  “And Lathrop is still critical. He’s still unconscious after receiving Hadjii’s experimental antitoxin. They will let me know when he’s regained consciousness. No answers there. And no action here. Time and opportunity to prepare for the next inevitable attack is slipping away. And I’ll be the one you blame for letting it happen because I knew we were at risk,” he lamented to the stoic delegation.

  Gina.bot was there to speak for Dock. The heads of the Uranus and Neptunian delegations agreed with him.

  She spoke with Dock’s voice, “We’re not sure what we’re dealing with here! Aliens, my ass! No offense, detective, but that’s hysterical. You’ve been out here too long. Take a break and ground yourself, go back to Earth awhile and clear your mind.” She/he turned to the delegates. “The whole point of this tour is to buttress the courage and commitment of people already out here and to entice more young people to come venture out to this sterile monotony. A general panic among the populace will make retaining and recruiting talent very difficult. If you start screaming ‘aliens, aliens!’ we will have a mass exodus of frightened operators out of here and our operations will dry up.”

  The number of raised eyebrows on the leadership’s faces told Dock/Gina he had won.

  Calming some, she/he purred, “Let’s keep the atrocities quiet a while longer. We need to prevent mass hysteria while we try to overcome our ignorance and lack of preparedness for dealing with this completely unknown threat.” Gina.baby glanced at Mooney. “If the band stops this close to completion, we’ve wasted three years and billions of credits. Not to mention the legacy of completing a high-risk mission on behalf of the morale of your workforce. Your lagging recruitment efforts have already seen an uptick since the Cosmics arrived. Let’s stay the course. Two more shows, a few more days, and we’re done. Then your detective can flip out as much as he wants to.”

  They turned to the exasperated policeman, to endure his protests. He was about to yet again but knew he was outnumbered. This battle was lost. His energies were needed elsewhere.

  “Just make sure you remember I warned you,” he said and left.

  He would give the band a heads-up. They seemed to be the most at risk. He couldn’t let them continue unawares. And they might be able to draw out their hidden adversary.

  He found them sober aboard Dock’s ship. Peco’s dismemberment had focused the remaining Mechanix on getting out of there, alive.

  Mooney hesitated then said, “I’m not making any headway with the delegations. You all have to continue. This is coming to a head and you guys are the eye of the storm. It’s coming your way, and the powers that be are determined you will finish, no matter what.”

  Mark, ever the hothead, shot back, “Damn right we’re going on! So far, looks like we’re fighting ourselves more than anything.” He looked down at his feet, knowing his friends were with him. “We’ve already discussed it, and this close to the finish line, I think our momentum will push us through. Are you wit
h us?”

  The detective was impressed by their bravery and selflessness. They were willing to step uncertain onto the field of battle to draw out the adversary.

  Mooney warned, “Yes. Of course! But I must warn you, if that… creature turns up again, we better be prepared. How? I’m not sure. I’m assuming what I saw was a creature and not a… weapon. If only Steve will survive.”

  Mark Moore stepped closer when Mooney mentioned the alien again.

  “Nothing is going to stop us, sir. Nothing. We’ve come too far and are too close to the end to be shut down now. Aliens or not, this tour will go the distance.”

  Ox and Mac wholeheartedly agreed. Kyle also nodded in the affirmative as he tweaked the scope on his old rifle. Various handguns were laid out in front of him. Angel kept a more modern weapon, a power gun, close by. The boys were armed and fearless in the face of the unseen enemy.

  Mooney added before he left, “If we are truly dealing with a hostile alien species, the coming days will alter the course of human history.”

  Mooney went to find a good meal. Rest was out of the question. Replaying the events in his mind, it was apparent the murderous beings were drawn to the rock ’n’ roll circus for some reason. Mooney would get one more shot at the perpetrators before the lid blew.

  With Grisholm’s grisly death fresh on his mind, he realized he was alone in his mission. With no backup, he, unfortunately, had the element of surprise.

  CHAPTER 77

  HOLED UP

  Uranus, T-minus 24 hours

  The group agreed to quickly reboard Dock’s ship after the show was over. In addition to a cadre of inspectors watching their every move, a security detail was set up to keep a close watch outside the vessel.

  Reprogrammed sniffers were now alien hunting dogs. Angel and Kyle were armed at all times. Given Mooney’s description of what he’d seen, they both wondered how to shoot a vapor if it attacked. Angel familiarized himself with the ventilation system throughout Big D’s ship, just in case the enemy could be blown away. There was not much else to do.

  One day cooped up in Dock’s smarmy quarters was bad enough. Dock checked in frequently to see if they needed anything.

  “Need anything?” he would chime in right when they got settled down from the last interruption.

  “Yeah!” Ox finally shouted, “I need to get the hell out of this tin can and beat the shit out of something.” He thought of so many worthy candidates.

  Ox. Ox paced and ate and pounded the crap out of his practice kit in the jam room on the fifth floor. The seventy-ton spaceship vibrated slightly when he worked out. It was somehow comforting to the others on board. He was on their team.

  Mac. The bass man was holed up in his cabin with his babydoll. She gave him endless hours o’ pleasure. Her coke-bottle figure always yielded to his hands. She obeyed and spoke only when spoken to. She surrendered to his will. He rubbed her down with oil and twirled her silver tuning pegs in his fingers. Her big bottom made him happy. She itched a scratch in his mind his fingers could not reach.

  Crew. The lifeblood of a seamless show, they worked coming and going, setting up, going over lighting and stage cues with the local Uranus union hands, making final preparations.

  Inspectors swarmed, bogging the flow down. Each crew member was searched after each trip in and out of secured areas, so they limited the number of trips. It took time and planning. Kyle loved them and encouraged them. He should. They made him look good!

  So far, rigging up was uneventful. Except they ran into Paul Claim. He was doing much better than the last time they’d seen him. Kinda weird, an ex-stage manager turned inspector snooping around in a solar wheelchair. They were proud of him for not quitting after the accident. And he did not pay much attention to them when he was on duty, so they could work fast and efficient.

  He pissed Gully off too, so they decided he was a cool guy.

  Moore. Moore did a remote interview with Macy Bryant’s Space Giants Show.

  “As you can see, Spacey Macy, I am alive and well! Still got all my fingers and toes! Here, pull my finger and see! Hahaha! Anyway, rumors of my doppelganger are extremely exaggerated. You know how fake news gets these things started. We’re ready to knock our last two shows out of the solar system! See you there! Thanks for having me on! Signing off.”

  The robo-reporter then looked gravely at the camera, as if revealing earth-shattering news, “The rumor was started by this fuzzy dark-net video, courtesy of Bini Bodi, showing an alleged body double of Mark Moore at the Saturn show, then a gruesome and, now we know, doctored clip of Mark being torn apart by fans after he did his famous swan dive into the audience. Someone has too much time on their hands! DockInHaus lawyers have filed a billion-credit defamation lawsuit against the videographer.”

  “And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen,” the hostess.bot assured, “the Rocking Cosmics have a singular mission and that is to finish hard and strong! Oh, I wish that Mark Moore would finish on me that way! Hahahahah! Love you, signing off, I’m Macy Bryant and you have witnessed a true Space Giant! Good evening.”

  Exiting the media room, Moore walked back to his cabin. He struggled, thinking about Peco’s death. A near-death experience causes one to reevaluate one’s life. It changes your thinking. Adjusts old habits.

  Why did he do drugs? He thought people liked him better stoned. He didn’t really enjoy it that much anymore, as he got older, he realized. FuzzBrain used to be fun. He could laugh at himself when he buzzed. Now people were laughing at him. It slowed him down when he should be picking up speed.

  Speaking of speed, he sure wished he had some right now.

  Kyle. Kyle warmed up in his room. Frequent exercise along with his daily epigenetic therapy to counteract potential radiation exposure distracted him from obsessing over Mercy.

  He had changed his mind after speaking privately with Detective Mooney and thought it best if Mercy stayed with her dad while he worked. It was too dangerous being around the band. Plus they should not be in a confined space together after the last near miss. He dreamed of her deliciousness.

  That also gave him time to help coordinate the doctor, the detective, and the billionaire to get as much antidote produced in the shortest time possible.

  Early clinical trials and the fact that Steve was still alive indicated Hadjii’s formula was non-toxic. On-site production had finally commenced. Franco’s Employee Healthcare Laboratory housed a hundred state-of-the-art 3-D chemical printers.

  Mass biomimetic synthesis was hot work. Large, portable air-conditioning units were brought in to keep the printers from melting. At last they would have something to fight back with.

  Hadjii. Doc Hadjii did a quick teleconference with the Uranus Airfield medics to explain that the antidote worked only if the makeup of the poison stayed within narrow parameters. If something was added or taken away, the antidote probably would have no effect. They had no control over that, so there was no way to predict efficacy until a victim reacted. It was up to them to plan a contingency.

  Mercy. Mercy had yet to reveal her mom’s devilry to her fiancé. She couldn’t bear him thinking she came from such evil. But she did want to tell him she was so proud of him for getting away. She agreed to be apart only because he would figure out he had been set up if they were together for any length of time. She would tell him, after things settled down.

  There was a big problem though. The dress was still at her mom’s. It was a one-of-a-kind made by Kyle’s production company. They’d agreed to let her make minor changes for comfort and when she’d fled the Augusta in a rage, she had forgotten to grab it. How could she go back after leaving so dramatically with such finality? She missed her mean ol’ mom terribly.

  She was thinking quietly in her room aboard the aging water-mining vessel when there came a soft knock. She opened the door.

  “Granny!” Her grandmoth
er was there!

  The older woman said, “I bring a caterer who brought food! And the dress! You silly, impetuous child. I love you. We have work to do.”

  She had never been so glad to see Granny Kep! She cried out and hugged the old woman. Her granny smell brought Mercy back home where she had been safe her whole life. The old woman had saved her!

  The caterer set up in the unoccupied room across the hall, and Mercy called her two crazy friends and dialed 999. All the girlfriends came to join in a meal together. Dress makers and pastry bakers sat down with history makers to share a moment of fellowship and normalcy.

  Mercy had given strict orders to Calli and Demi not to discuss the recent horrible events, only the bright future that lie ahead. They were to focus on the things going right, not the things going wrong.

  She beamed, making a toast before the happy group. “Positivity is going to be reestablished from here on out. My sweet, sweet granny has showed up just in time to revive our spirits!”

  CHAPTER 78

  Friends Again

  Prior to the Uranus “Father Sky” show, all landed vessels were inspected. Every person was sniffed and x-rayed before entering general admission. Outer Rim troops patrolled the concert facility with swarms of sniffer droids through stage, concession, inspectors’ corp, audio/visual, transportation, and most of the VIP sections. A command center was set up in Dock’s VIP lounge. His was the most wired-in room in the room.

  (Gina, all the players will converge tonight and get their damn pitchur’ took, right?)

  (yes sir.out)

  Kyle went to Moore’s cabin two hours before blastoff. Sort of a surprise inspection, a mission of dope detection. Peco was gone, so Moore was back in, but the boy needed to have his stuff together, and Kyle was going to apply whatever pressure was necessary.

  He needed his friend back.

  He hoped he would—could—self-regulate.