Alien Shadows

by Daniel Arenson

  "You had nothing! You and Steel were flapping your weapons around uselessly, causing no more damage than kids with foam swords." He hefted his electromagnetic rod. "Maybe these bad boys will finally do some damage. Until we kill these creatures, we need to stop bickering, and we need to work together. All right? We didn't defeat the skelkrins and the Singularity by bickering all day long."

  Nova tilted her head. "We didn't?"

  "Well . . . not all day long." Riff sighed. "In any case, let's keep patrolling. And keep your eyes peeled for ghosts. Oh, and Nova . . . don't look out the windows. At least not when the black hole's out there."

  He shuddered to remember what he had seen when gazing into Yurei. The memory had been haunting him since. It had felt like . . . consciousness unfolding. As a child, Riff had once scratched his eye, and he had worn a patch for a month. When the bandage was finally removed, he suddenly remembered how much deeper the three-dimensional world seemed, how flat everything had looked with one eye. When gazing into Yurei, Riff had felt the same realization: how flat and muted his reality was. Inside that black hole, he had seemed to gaze upon true reality. Upon a black land woven of evil itself.

  Grimacing, he thought of the rose on the black hill. Somehow he knew that he had to save that rose. To stop the evil in the dark sky from crushing it. Yet the hill soared up eternally, a distance he could not climb, and the Dark Queen lurked everywhere, watching, mocking him.

  He looked at Nova, forcing his mind away from that memory. He gazed at her pale, freckled skin; her pointy ears thrusting out from her golden hair; the whip crackling in her left hand, her rod in the right. The warrior-princess often scolded him, mocked him, sometimes infuriated him, but Riff knew that Nova loved him. He knew that she would always fight at his side. He loved her more than anything in this cosmos, and gazing at her soothed his soul, and the goodness he saw in her melted his anxiety like rain melting snow, like—

  "Riff!" She groaned. "Now stop gawping at me, or I'm going to whip your eyeballs off."

  He sighed and kept walking, staring ahead this time. Maybe Nova was herself just as dangerous as a black hole.

  Their patrol took them through the labyrinth of Kaperosa Observatory. The observatory had not seemed large from above—a small complex of domes and walkways. Yet walking within it, the place seemed endless. Neon lights flickered. Staircases rose and fell. Tunnels connected to small, glass chambers, only to lead to more narrow burrows. During times of stress, Riff would sometimes dream that he was trapped, trying to reach a spaceport or exam on time, only to get lost, and the more he tried to find his way, the more lost he became. Walking here felt like one of those bad dreams.

  I feel like an ant trapped in a glass ant farm. Perhaps that's all we are to Yurei. Ants in a box.

  Humans had come here to study the black hole. Riff suddenly had the uncomfortable feeling that the black hole was studying them.

  They found themselves walking down an outer corridor, the windows exposing the rocky surface and dark sky outside. The black hole was rising. Riff forced himself to stare forward, refusing to look out the window. But he could still feel Yurei outside, feel its black eye staring at him.

  "It's too quiet," he muttered. "Where are all the scientists who normally work here?" He glanced into the labs to his left; the small, crowded chambers were empty.

  "Hiding in their quarters," Nova said. "Scared. They're not warriors like me."

  But there was a hint of fear to Nova's voice, and when Riff glanced over, he saw that her hands were tight around her weapons.

  "It's not entirely quiet," Riff said. "I hear . . . something."

  He cocked his head, listening, not even daring to breathe. A soft murmur like distant wind. A rumble, almost too low to hear, that sounded almost like a voice, the words too muffled to understand. White noise, that was all. Dark noise. Sound felt more than heard.

  "Riff, you idiot!" whispered an echoing voice.

  Riff started and spun around. A flash of gold caught his eye, then vanished.

  "Did you hear that?" His heart banged against his ribs. "A voice? And did you see a . . . a golden flash?"

  He stared down the hallway. Nothing. Only the dark tunnel stretching into shadows. Only the empty labs on one side, the windows on the other, gazing out into space. No ghosts. No more voices.

  Nova frowned. "I heard nothing. Calm down, Riff. You're making me jumpy."

  He nodded and lowered his rod. "I thought I heard . . . a familiar voice." He shook his head. "Never mind. Let's keep going."

  Blessedly, the corridor with those dark windows ended. A doorway led them into a hot, humid greenhouse. Bright lights shone overhead, their glare hiding the view out the windows. Boxes of soil covered the floor, sprouting thousands of plants. Many of the plants were as large as trees. Their leaves reached toward the light, creating oxygen for the observatory, and the branches gave forth fruit. Herbs and lettuce grew from small gardens.

  Riff inhaled deeply. Under the bright lights, surrounded by greenery, he almost felt at peace. Whatever evil presence he had felt in the corridor was gone. Here was a place too warm, too bright, too full of life for the undead to haunt.

  Nova frowned down at a garden. "Carrots? Celery?" She glanced up at a tree. "Apples? That's rabbit food. Where do they grow the steak?"

  "There's synthetic meat in the lab down the hall." Riff passed his hands through a tree's foliage.

  Nova snorted. "Synthetic meat. So human. We ashais hunt. We eat real meat, raw, bleeding, fresh off the bone." She licked her lips.

  "Is that why you scarf down so many hot dogs from the Dragon Huntress's fridge?" He fluffed up a head of lettuce. "There's more meat in this than those, and—"

  With a crackle, the lights died.

  Riff froze.

  Darkness filled the greenhouse.

  With the glare of neon gone, the black hole loomed outside the windows, casting its gaze into the chamber.

  "What did you do?" Nova whispered.

  Riff raised his electromagnetic rod. Nova switched on her whip, and the lash crackled with electricity, emitting dim light. Shadows scurried. The trees creaked and the leaves swayed.

  "Could be a power failure," Riff said.

  Nova shook her head. "I still hear the generators humming."

  Riff heard them too . . . and he heard other sounds. Scuttling feet. Heavy breathing behind him. Hot breath fluttered the hairs on the back of his head. He spun around, heart bursting into a gallop, but nothing was there.

  He glanced back at Nova. "Let's get out of here."

  She was only a shadow; he could see little more than glints on her golden armor and hair. The plants swayed around her like looming aliens, tilting forward. A shadowy arm reached out, tipped with claws, reaching to her shoulder.

  "Nova!" He raised his rod and blasted out an electromagnetic wave.

  A creature screeched, a sound louder than starship engines, high-pitched like steam fleeing a kettle. Riff's ears rang. Nova spun around too, flailing her own rod. Shadows danced madly. Feet pattered behind Riff, and he spun around again but saw nothing.

  He froze, pulse beating in his ears.

  He stepped closer to Nova, and they stood back to back, weapons raised.

  "See anything?" she whispered.

  "Thousands of shadows."

  Just thousands of plants, he hoped.

  "Listen to me, whoever you are!" Riff called out. "We're not here to hurt you. We don't want to fight you. We're humans—"

  "Speak for yourself," Nova muttered.

  Riff ignored her. "—we're humans and have come here in peace. Will you reveal yourself to me? Will you speak with me and—"

  Again, he could not finish his sentence. With screeches, the shadows jumped toward him.

  Riff swung his rod, blasting out his electromagnetic field. The waves pounded against the ghosts. The creatures howled, scattered, reformed, and drove toward him again.

  Nova fought at his side. She swung her electric whi
p in one hand, her rod in the other. Her glowing lash lit the darkness, casting out sparks. The light fell upon blobby creatures and reflected in their crimson eyes. The beasts' claws glinted, and Riff screamed as they tore across his thigh. His blood spurted.

  "Back!" he shouted. "You will leave this place! Back!"

  He lashed his rod again. The electromagnetic wave crashed into ghosts. They fell back.

  I'm hurting them. He snarled. They can be hurt.

  One of the creatures swooped from the ceiling. Riff raised his rod, casting it back. It tore apart, dispersing into blobs of shadow. More creatures lurched from ahead, and one knocked Riff down, and he screamed in pain.

  The rose.

  The hill.

  His consciousness fleeing his body, expanding into the other place, into the nightmare, mingling with the living shadows that floated over the mountains.

  I have to climb the hill. I have to save the rose. I have to climb. To get there. But she's watching. She—

  "No!" He roared. "I will not go there again."

  He swung his rod in an arc. It felt like swinging it through jelly. The ghosts squealed and fell back, changing form, shrinking, growing, vanishing. The electromagnetic field pulsed, throbbing up Riff's arm, but he kept swinging.

  The rod clanged into something hard.

  A creature screamed, then vanished.

  I hit it. It's made of flesh. It's solid.

  He rose to his feet, swinging the rod again, driving forward, pushing the ghosts back.

  No. They're not ghosts. They're solid. I felt one.

  Hope rose in him, and he lashed his rod at another ghost, dispersing it into shards. He had beaten back two more ghosts when he saw Nova, and his hope crashed.

  A towering beast, ten feet tall, loomed over her. Nova was a proud warrior, tall and strong, yet beside this creature she seemed small as a halfling. This creature seemed more solid than the others, woven of the same black substance that had filled his nightmarish vision. Its eyes blazed red, and the black hole swirled behind it, haloing the creature's head. Nova was screaming, her voice muted, barely in this world. She tried to lash her rod, but the creature grabbed it, and the weapon vanished.

  Riff howled wordlessly and thrust his own rod.

  Black tendrils appeared, swatting him aside. He crashed into plants, snapping their stalks. Blackness fell upon him, pinning him down, crushing him, constricting him.

  The towering creature reached out its claws and grabbed Nova.

  "Nova!" Riff shouted and fired his plasma gun.

  The blaze stormed forth, tore through the creature, and slammed into the window behind it. The glass shattered. Air shrieked out from the greenhouse, flowing out in a typhoon as if draining into the black hole outside.

  "Remember the tesseract, stupid," Nova whispered, meeting his gaze . . . and vanished.

  The towering creature broke apart, shattering into ten thousand fluttering pieces like crows leaving a tree, each demonic bird dissolving into nothingness.

  "Nova!" Riff shouted. "Oh gods, Nova!"

  He fought in a fury, howling, swinging his rod, soon unable to scream as the air drained out. The ghosts mobbed him, laughing, mocking him.

  "Captain!" cried a voice, and Giga raced into the chamber. The android swung her katana. Batteries were placed onto its blade, casting out an electromagnetic field. The android's hair and kimono fluttered as she fought, driving back the ghosts.

  "Captain!" cried another voice, and Romy raced into the chamber, her pitchfork equipped with its own magnets. She too fought, driving the creatures back.

  Riff fell to his knees, unable to breathe. The air kept draining out. Blackness spread before his eyes. Vaguely, he was aware of Giga sealing the broken window, and engineers of Lenora's team rushing inside, and Romy driving off the last ghosts.

  "Nova," he whispered, and all he could see were her eyes again—green eyes staring into his, then vanishing, gone into shadows.

  CHAPTER EIGHT:

  GHOST HUNTERS

  "What do you mean, just . . . vanished?" Steel asked.

  "I told you." Riff rose to his feet, knocking back his chair. He paced the cafeteria. "Just vanished. The claws grabbed her and she just goddamn vanished."

  His heart thudded as he paced. His chest felt too tight, and he could barely breathe. When he passed by a window, he grabbed the blinds and roughly tugged them shut.

  "Riff," Steel said, voice softer now. "Did you see them drag her away, or—"

  "Why don't you keep the damn blinds shut?" Riff marched toward another window and tugged the blinds down, nearly shattering them. "I told you all to keep the blinds shut, the curtains dawn, the observatory closed off. I don't want anyone looking at that black hole, and I don't want it looking at anyone. Do you understand?" His voice rose to a shout, hoarse, torn with pain. "When will you imbeciles ever listen to me?"

  He stared at them, panting, eyes stinging. Romy whimpered and sneaked under the table to suck her thumb. Steel stared back, eyes soft with pity. Giga lowered her head. Piston and Twig awkwardly twiddled their thumbs.

  "Sir," Piston ventured, "I think I could take a look at the footage again, maybe—"

  "No. I don't want you looking at any damn footage, Piston." Riff pointed at the door. "Back to the Dragon Huntress. I want you fixing our ship around the clock. You want to eat lunch? You eat while you work. Twig, damn it! Stop sniffling and go with him. Now! That's an order. You're not to leave the Dragon Huntress until she's spaceworthy again."

  Twig nodded, rubbing out her tears. "I'll just finish my pudding and—"

  "Now!" Riff roared.

  The halfling all but fled the cafeteria, and Piston lolloped in pursuit. Soon Riff heard the sound of their power tools working on the ship outside.

  A red, clawed hand reached from under the tabletop. Romy peered up. "I'll just grab Twig's pudding, if she's not going to eat it, and—"

  "Romy, you too." Riff pointed at the door. "Get out of here."

  "But—but—!" The demon's lips wobbled. "Piston said I just get in the way, and—"

  "Go!"

  The demon sniffed. "I'll just go look for Nova. Maybe I can still find her hiding somewhere. . ." Romy's eyes welled with tears. She turned toward the door, spun back, grabbed the pudding, then fled the hall.

  Riff remained alone in the cafeteria with Steel and Giga. The knight stood, clutching his sword. The android sat at the table, head lowered.

  Riff stared at them. His eyes threatened to leak tears again. He was their captain, their leader, yet now he felt himself losing control.

  Have I brought them here to die? Have I led my family, my best friends, to death on a rocky world orbiting an evil goddess?

  "With the greenhouse destroyed, we're almost out of food, almost out of oxygen," he said. "We have enough to last three days, and Piston and Twig said they'll need another two weeks to fix the ship."

  "They'll work faster," Steel said. "And we'll tighten our belts. And the Dragon Huntress still has oxygen tanks."

  "Enough for all seventy-three scientists on this observatory?" Riff asked. "That buys us another two days at most."

  Steel took a step closer. His eyes darkened. "Then what would you have us do, brother? Give up hope? That I will not do. I will keep fighting. I am a warrior, I—"

  "So was Nova!" Riff couldn't curb his shout, his tears. "She was like you. Proud. Arrogant. A warrior. And now . . . now she's gone, and—"

  "Nova is still alive." Steel grabbed Riff's arms. "I will not believe that she's dead."

  For the first time in years, Riff saw his brother mad. The knight snarled, baring his teeth. His brown eyes, normally so sad, burned with rage.

  "I saw her die," Riff whispered. "Oh gods, Steel, I saw her die."

  "You saw nothing of the sort." Steel glared at him. "Listen to me, brother. We have no body. No ashes. No sign of Nova. To me, that means that she still lives. Kidnapped perhaps. A prisoner of these creatures. But alive. We saw how these ghost
s appear and disappear, popping out of corners, shadows, ceilings. If they can travel like that, they could have taken Nova with them."

  Riff barked out a mirthless laugh. "You talk to me like I'm a child. Like I need to be comforted. I was there, Steel! I was there. She looked into my eyes as they killed her."

  "We don't know that—"

  "You don't know anything!" Riff shouted. "What do you know of what happened? What do you know of loss?"

  Now Steel raised his voice to a roar. "Everything!"

  Riff froze and stared. Giga started and covered her mouth. It was the first time either of them had heard Steel shout.

  "Everything," the knight repeated, eyes red, mustache twitching. "I have known more loss than you can imagine, brother. The loss of a woman I love. The loss of my knighthood. The loss of all contact with others. The loss of everything I ever loved, ever cared for. All my life, I have lost, so do not lecture me, brother, about what I know or don't know. Yet no matter what I've lost, I always fought on. Calmly. With quiet dignity. No matter how many times I was knocked down, I got back up and I kept walking. And I expect no less from you, Riff. From my captain. From my older brother."

  Giga rushed forth and embraced the knight, her hair falling down to hide her face.

  Riff stared into his brother's eyes, then lowered his head. "I'm sorry, Steel. I'm sorry. And . . . I'm scared."

  Steel's eyes softened, and his grip on Riff's arms loosened, turning into an embrace. "As am I. As is everyone here. You are not alone, Riff. I fight with you. Always."

  Nova would say the same, Riff thought. Again he saw it—her eyes staring into his. Her last words: Remember the tesseract, stupid. Then the shadow dispersing into a thousand crows, fluttering away, taking Nova with them. If Nova was still alive, was she screaming in that nightmarish land, the realm the black hole had shown him—perhaps the realm inside the black hole itself?

  "Remember the tesseract, stupid," Riff whispered.

  Steel frowned. "You call me a fool?"

  Riff shook his head. "It's something Nova said." He began to pace the cafeteria again. "Tesseract, tesseract . . . an impossible cube."

  He stared around him, peering into the corners, the shadows, the corridor beyond. What had Nova meant?