Alien Instinct

by Tracy Lauren

  I get closer to the long corridor running the length of the structure. Through the large arched windows, I can see the wall beyond is lined with doorways. Kate makes her way to the west stairway and I follow her up the steps, inside the corridor. It is covered here, offering protection from the frequent drizzling rainstorms. The view of the courtyard is a powerful one. It is designed so that one could sit on the ledge and watch everything in the space below. Or even talk to friends lounging by the fountain. I imagine what this place must have been like when its civilization flourished. Kate begins to peer inside one of the doors.

  “Careful, let me check first,” I tell her and she rolls her eyes in response, but acquiesces. I retrieve my handheld lantern from my pack and shine it inside the first room. It is empty. We continue down the corridor, looking into each doorway as we pass. They all seem to be fairly uniform, square rooms with an indentation along the back wall. Leaves mound in the corners and there is evidence animals nested here at one time or another. Any doors were likely made of wood or cloth and have long ago rotted away. Kate knocks her foot on a small piece of something that clatters across the stone floor.

  “Huh, wonder what this is?” She asks picking it up to examine it.

  “It appears to be a small piece of pottery, yes?” We both look at the floor. We see more shattered pieces, as if a vase or some type of receptacle had been dropped, only this did not happen centuries ago. I go back and examine the rooms again more thoroughly.

  “What are you thinking?” Kate asks.

  “Look here…” I point to some spots in the first room. I see some signs confirming my assumption and I look more closely at more of the rooms. It appears as if long forgotten items once belonging to the builders of this structure sat in these rooms for many yets. We can see the outline of items that have at some point in more recent history gone missing. “It looks as if raiders may have found this place and pillaged it. Though it appears that was some time ago.”

  “Interesting. Do you think this could be linked to what happened to Gorrard and his crew?” She asks. I shrug, but it would make sense. If Gorrard’s ship arrived unexpectedly, the raiders might have viewed them as a threat and fired on them.

  “Let’s look for more evidence before we draw any conclusions,” I say as I see a shadow darken the courtyard. I move quickly to one of the arched windows and peer upwards.

  “One of those big birds?” Kate asks, but I see nothing.

  “Perhaps.”

  “Want to check out the main room?”

  “What’s that?” I ask, still distracted by the unknown origin of the shadow.

  “The main room? Big building in the center,” she points.

  “Ah, yes.” I say, bringing my attention back to Kate.

  “Upstairs or downstairs?” She asks.

  “I hold no preference,” I tell her.

  “Okay, let’s start up and work our way down.”

  “As you wish.”

  We make our way down a short stairway to access the long one that is the center point of the courtyard. At the top are columns holding open the front half of a large domed room. We can instantly see this room is significantly more elaborate than any of the other rooms we have seen thus far. The floors here are a tiled mosaic and instead of grey stone walls, it is a smooth marbled stone. You can faintly make out murals across the ceiling that have been fading for centuries. The view from this room is amazing. It looks down onto the courtyard on one side and across the forest beyond the rear wall on the other.

  “This is absolutely stunning. There are no words for…” Kate says, trailing off. I pause a moment to appreciate the awe in her eyes.

  “Look! A stairwell.” She notices in the back of the room. I lead the way and we follow the spiraling staircase down using my lantern. We hear water dripping before the stairs open up into a large and humid room. Luckily the back wall of this section of the structure has the same arching, open windows--allowing light and a slight breeze in. Thankfully so, for the humidity in here is even more dense than when tucked under the canopy of the forest.

  “What on Earth… or Elysia. Let me try again. What on Elysia?” Kate mocks a gasp mirthfully.

  “A bath,” I say impressed, admiring the intricate mosaic tile covering the room. I can see the walls are lined with a series of small fountains. Some have vines spilling from them. This culture thrived because of their access to water and their ability to harness it. It makes sense that they decorate liberally with water features throughout their temple.

  “A bath?” Kate parrots. “That’s more like a pool! It’s practically an Olympic sized pool!”

  “It needs a little care,” I say, examining moss and mold growing along the walls as a result of the humidity from the water. “I think we could have it back in usable conditions in about five to ten rotations.

  “Wait, we could really turn this back into a working bath?” She asks.

  “Absolutely,” I smile at her. “And those spouts along the back wall,” I point to the dark side of the room. “They appear to be a type of shower head.” Kate says nothing but loudly breathes in a long and drawn out inhalation of air. Surly a sign of her surprise and excitement.

  We move to the windows and look out together at the view from the rear of the structure. I can see crumbling wall lines far in the distance. “Likely there was a village out that way, fields for farming perhaps.”

  “It’s so humbling to walk through this place. It feels sacred or something.”

  “It is a blessing Kate; this place will be ours--a home base for the humans. It has everything we need. There is much space here and room for growth--to build something more. I know there is work to do here,” I see her eyes go to the vine filled fountains, “but it could be beautiful.”

  “No, I see it. It is beautiful and with it cleaned up a little… pruned… I can totally see it. This could be something really amazing,” she agrees and my core soars. We look out again to the forest beyond the bathing room. Something nearby catches my eye and I jump down out of the window.

  “Hey! Where are you going?” Kate yells after me. But I am back before she can chase after me--with a large yellow fruit as a prize. “Oh, please tell me I can eat that.” I run a quick scan which tells us there are no toxic compounds within this fruit, so I dig my claw in and crack it open. The meat of the fruit is yellow and the center is filled with puffy orange seeds.

  “Oh, please let it taste like mango, please let it taste like mango.” She takes a bite. “Bummer. Papaya.” She scrunches up her nose. She sounds displeased, but continues to eat.

  “Try a seed,” I offer and she grabs a few, popping them into her mouth.

  “Oh sweet! It’s kind of like a fruit we have on Earth called pomegranate. Oh man, these are good. I could eat this part all day. It’s good, try it.” I taste both the seeds and the meat and find that my preferences are opposite of Kate’s, which we agree works out quite well.

  “So… what do you say we find that beacon?” Kate tells me. I grunt in response.

  “Have you been stalling?” She asks.

  “Only very slightly. But I am ready now. I would like to report back to the others as soon as possible to give them an update.”

  “Do they even know about this place yet?” she asks.

  “I did give Dax our coordinates this morning and I let him know we may have discovered some ruins.”

  “You’ll have a lot to talk about tonight, I guess.”

  “Let us hope it is all good news.”

  Chapter 42

  Rennek

  Kate and I make our way out of the ruins and continue on toward the faint signal the beacon is emitting. It is but a short walk from the ruins. I immediately see signs of a crash, where a ship ripped through the trees and dug heavy gouges deep in the soil. We follow the path Gorrard’s ship dug out.

  “There!” Kate says and I see it too. Scraps of torn metal. I inspect some of the larger pieces.

  “What are you looki
ng for,” Kate asks.

  “A reason,” and the reason is easy enough to find. “See these marks here? This discoloration?”

  “Yeah, what is it?”

  “Plasma blast,” the ship was shot down. We spot a seat from the ship, sprawled out on the ground amongst the metal. It is covered in old and brown dried blood. Kate covers her mouth and I see her fingers tremble.

  “It was raiders then?” she chokes out.

  “Likely. This planet must have sat forgotten for centuries. Unfortunately for Gorrard and his crew, their timing was tragic. The raiders might have thought Gorrard’s ship was… I do not know, competition perhaps or UPC patrollers and simply shot them down, no questions asked.” I search the ground for more clues, but this is an old crime scene and there is little more I can learn from these remains.

  “Do you think they might come back, the raiders, I mean?”

  “Unlikely, they took every artifact of value yets ago.”

  We continue walking past the debris of Gorrard’s ship, following the beacon’s signal on my scanner. We journey deeper into the forest again. Eventually, we reach a clearing encircled by trees. In the center is a metal post, about half my height, covered in intricate carvings and symbols. A small blue light pulses on the top. We stop at the outer circle of trees and stare in silence at the beacon.

  This device could call my people home. My feet are as heavy as my core and it seems all I can do is gaze upon this relic of the Vendari. Finally, Kate’s soft fingers slip in between mine. I look down at my mate. She urges me forward. Together, hand in hand, we walk to the beacon. I focus my scanner on it and see if any of the readings have changed now that we are close.

  “Is it safe to touch?”

  “I believe so,” I tell her.

  “What’s up with the crop circle? It’s not radioactive is it?” She asks, still unsure.

  “Residual, from its landing impact. The plant life here was probably scorched and is only just now beginning to grow back. The beacon will not harm us.” We return our attention to the metallic pillar.

  “It’s beautiful… both what it is and what it represents for you guys,” she says. I squeeze her hand. This female knows me so well. We both bend to inspect the details on the beacon. There is no obvious control panel or interface. We circle the device, but I see nothing but the swirling artistic designs. I wonder if this is the written language of the Vendari, but even if it is a language, there is no way to know what it means without Gorrard to translate.

  “I don’t suppose that flashing light is a button?” She asks. I push at it with my claw, but it does not give as I press it. It is nothing more than a light.

  “Does not hurt to try,” I tell her, shrugging.

  “These slots here, could these be anything?”

  “Slots?”

  “Yeah, these six slots here? Kind of looks like a USB port,” she says.

  I do not know what she speaks of, but I examine the space more closely. It does indeed appear as if there are slots… perhaps a keyhole of some kind.

  “What now?” She asks.

  “I will let the others know we found the beacon. Bossan and Tennir will likely have some insight into how to activate it. They will begin running tests. It may take some time.”

  “Will we just leave it here then, until the others meet up with us?”

  “It should be fine here. It has survived many yets in space and nearly thirty or so here on Elysia. Another few days are hardly of consequence.”

  “Bummer. That was a little anticlimactic,” Kate pouts.

  “What did you expect,” I laugh.

  “I don’t know, a secret button that we would discover and it would… I don’t know, send a big flare up or something.”

  “A big flare to wake the Vendari from stasis?” I cock an eyebrow at her.

  “Yeah, well not a flare. But something big, figurative fireworks.”

  “Let us go choose a room back at the ruins and I will give you all the fireworks you can dream of,” I pull her close and wrap my arms around her. She melts into me.

  “Are you good? Did you expect more from this moment?”

  “I knew that we would not make much progress on this day. If it were a simple design, Gorrard would have activated it yets ago. We have located the beacon though, we have discovered a place where we can create a more permanent camp, and I have my mate by my side. This is more than I ever expected. I am content in this moment.”

  “My Rennek, so patient,” she sighs, hugging me tightly.

  “I am yours,” I tell her and she tilts her head up to look into my eyes.

  “I know.”

  I revel in my mate’s loving embrace, but I smell something in the distance. I inhale deeply.

  “What is it?” Kate asks with her brows furrowed.

  “I believe I smell the primates from before. There may be more in this area.”

  We stare up into the trees, but see nothing.

  Chapter 43

  Kate

  Now the fun part starts. Is it weird that I think this is the fun part, I wonder? I mean, this is where the real work begins and I’m excited by that. This is what I can see myself dedicating my life to. And I have Rennek to thank for that. Now, not only to I feel like I have come to peace with my place in life--I also feel like I have purpose.

  We are going to start by cleaning up the ruins and making it into a home base. When the others join us there will be lots to talk about. Our goal is to find a way to keep searching for more humans--to rescue them and bring them here. I need to see who is on board to help and who wants to just live the quiet life. Heck, the other girls might eventually want to go live on a less primitive planet, but to me Elysia feels right.

  I can see us building a village at the ruins. We can bring a little technology in--make it more livable, with some lamps and hopefully some toilets. We can farm, lead a simple lifestyle--safe and away from traffickers and bounty hunters. It’s perfect. And it all starts with Rennek and I deciding which room along the corridor will be ours.

  “This is so exciting! It’s like we’re moving in together and we’re on an apartment hunt,” I chatter excitedly. Part of me wants to play it cool, but I’m giddy. “Sorry, this is a first for me and I’m super excited. I’ve never lived with a guy before.” Luckily Rennek doesn’t seem to mind. He just smiles and lets me fuss.

  “The rooms are all very similar. Did you have a preference when we looked earlier?”

  “I think I might actually. You see the room there, it’s closest to the stairway that leads up to the large… I don’t know, throne room or whatever it was up top. It seems like we could repurpose that room as a headquarters where we could coordinate things and meet with people. I think it’d be good for you to be close to it. Especially once we crack the code to this beacon and the Vendari get here. You might have to take on a… a… role that…” I see him stiffen and I trail off. I feel like I really stepped in it. I know Rennek is not fond of titles and he still harbors some serious negative emotions towards his father. Gorrard said he was a king, but I really don’t know if that’s a role Rennek feels linked to. Or even wants to be linked to.

  “Regardless of whatever your role is, people will want to meet with you to discuss what went wrong,” I recover… but just barely.

  He grunts in response. “A good choice for a room. It is farthest from the outer walls, it is safe. If an animal breeches the walls and attacks we will be farthest from any entry point.”

  “Do you really like it though?” I ask and this seems to snap him out of the funk I accidently caused.

  “Anything I share with you is perfect, my sweet Kate,” he tells me with soft and caring eyes.

  “Well, then let’s get cleaning! First thing I need is a broom.”

  I watch as Rennek fashions me a broom out of a long branch and some ferns he packs tightly and then binds together. He is quick in his work and once he’s done I take it for a spin. It works surprisingly well! I feel a swell o
f pride in him… and even a little lusty. I never thought I’d be aroused by a dude making me a broom, but I’m finding his handiness is shockingly sexy.

  I start sweeping the small stuff out of the room while he takes out big armfuls of dead leaves piled in the corners.

  “Are we going to do the other rooms too?” I ask.

  “I will take all this and burn it in the courtyard so it does not attract vermin. We can let the others clean the spaces they choose. When we are done here we should focus on rehabilitating the common areas.”