Sequence

by Adam Moon

  Chris wasn’t a religious person, but he sure hoped there was a real God and that he’d intervene. But it was already too late for that. A real God would’ve never let things go this far.

  The convex hammer rose again into the ceiling, but this time there was no gore stuck to it; the pit was filled with a dark brown liquid only. Anything recognizable as a body part had been pulverized. The liquid was sloshing around in the pit, making a sickening splashing sound as it crashed and swirled against the walls.

  A light mist hovered inside the crater, blood and guts in aerosol form that would eventually settle back into the pool.

  There was enough blood and liquefied alien parts to fill dozens of Olympic-size swimming pools.

  The god said, “You will have a final privilege. You will get to see the ultimate being created before your eyes right before he and I kill you all. I hope you appreciate this honor.”

  She hit another button and the hammer moved aside as a large complex structure took its place. It had a thin tube that pointed straight down into the center of the pit. She hit another button and they saw the contraption shake. It was powering up. It must have been the laser device Chris had heard rumor of.

  The tip of the tube lit up like the sun and a stream of charged particles shot out and into the center of the pool of slime.

  Chris shielded his eyes from the bright white light, but he had the morbid desire to watch what was about to happen. Where the laser beam hit the fluid, it swirled about quickly, like a whirlpool, only quicker.

  The liquid pushed up the walls as it was displaced from the center of the pit by the force of the beam. It had started to shimmer and change colors. There were streaks of reds and blues swimming in it like oil-slicks.

  All of a sudden, the liquid crashed into the beam of light, forming a fat pillar of sludge that spun and warped into the rough shape of a creature.

  Man of Action

  Chris said to the asshole mech beside him, “We need to stop this before it’s too late.”

  “It can’t be stopped, you idiot. She has our DNA within her. She can predict everything we might do and stop it before it starts.”

  Chris turned on the condescending mech and said flatly, “She doesn’t have my people’s DNA in her. She won’t see this coming.” He grabbed the jerk and lofted him into the air. He used all of his power to throw the mammoth metal mech right at the female god.

  She was so mesmerized by the coalescing mass of fluid in the pit that she didn’t see the robot projectile until it was too late.

  The mech hit her hard. For a second Chris worried that she’d be able to withstand such an impact, and she seemed to at first, but as the mech fell away to the side of the platform she stood on, her footing gave out and she lost balance.

  She cried out fearfully as she fell off of the platform and tumbled into the pit. She should have slid down the side of the pit, but the laser beam seemed to exert an attractive force on her and sucked her inwards while she was still in midair. The laser beam cut her in half and the liquid pillar fell apart from the disruption. The laser blinked a few times and then turned off.

  Unbelievably, her torso afloat in the swaying sludge, she swam after her lower half in a frenzy and snatched it up.

  Samda said, “She’s not going to die so easily. She’s putting herself back together. We need to get up to that platform.”

  The captain yelled, “She’s right. She can regenerate.”

  Chris nodded. He ran towards the platform as mechs quickly got out of his way. When he was close enough, he leapt into the air, but because he had no experience with the ability, he fell short. He managed to get a tentacle on the edge of the platform though, and used it to pull himself up the rest of the way.

  He got to his feet just as a hush fell across the room. He looked into the pit in time to see the false god’s body come together. Her legs were back in place and she pointed at Chris menacingly.

  She shrieked, “That was a mistake, Earthman.”

  Before she had a chance to use any of her obscure powers on him, he reached out and started hitting console buttons at random. The laser device retracted and moved aside and the convex hammer came into view.

  The god looked straight up at the hammer and screamed out in confusion and anger.

  Chris hit more buttons, hoping that he’d get lucky.

  He did. The hammer rushed into the pit and stopped, fully extended. It made a loud cracking sound when it hit the bottom. Chris hit the button again and again and the hammer responded. It jacked up and down, each time making a sickening squelch.

  After a full minute of panic, he realized the god was dead. He hit the button a final time to raise the masher and they all watched it ascend into the ceiling.

  All eyes turned to the pit. The liquid was brown and inert once more. It swished about but it was steadily slowing its movement. And there was no god swimming around in it.

  One of the mechs hollered up at him, “Crush her again just to be sure.”

  Chris shook his head. She was dead. But when other voices agreed with the mech, that she might regenerate, he relented and sent the masher back into the pit. He experimented with a few more buttons until he found the one that spun the masher. He hammered away with the masher and sent it spinning to turn whatever might be left in that pit into pulp.

  The mechs started to cheer wildly. It was a pent-up cheer full of laughter and fear, like an ultimate release of something that had been building for far too long, and released all at once.

  Chris finished up and then jumped off of the platform. Before the pool of sludge had a chance to settle, another mech made it to the platform and started to smash it with the masher once again. The crowd cheered louder, but Chris just shook his head. By now, it was overkill.

  There was brown blood everywhere now, streaking down the walls and pooling on the floor. Every mech was dripping in the blood of thousands of aliens and one god.

  Samda came to him first and wrapped him in a hug. She said, “How does it feel to save the universe?”

  “I don’t really know.”

  “Okay then, how does it feel to kill God?”

  Chris smiled just as the captain approached with his first mate in tow.

  Under the platform, the jerk mech that Chris had used to knock the god from the platform was hoisted into the air by several cheering mechs like he was their hero. He looked bewildered, but after a few seconds of contemplation, he seemed to accept the role, despite the fact that he didn’t deserve it.

  Jubilation

  When the chaos died down fully, the captain climbed up on the platform to address the others.

  He said, “Our suffering is finally at an end. Our foolish mistake did not lead to the end of existence. We got very lucky.”

  Someone below yelled out, “Luck had nothing to do with it. Chris the Earthman had everything to do with it.”

  The crowd cheered and Chris felt a rush of euphoria as Samda put a tentacle around his waist.

  The captain nodded. “The Earth-man has saved us all. We owe him our very existence. Our cousins were right after all. We were foolish to fail so miserably and to then not learn from our mistake. We were foolish to listen to the false god. If the universe is to bear a real god, we should let that happen naturally, or come to terms that it might not happen at all. We feared the end of the universe, but after being kept alive in these suits for so long, I welcome death as a friend.”

  Someone below shouted, “Speaking of death, what should we do now that our bodies are gone?”

  It was only then that Chris realized that the captain’s body wasn’t the only one that had been sacrificed by the god. All of theirs had. Every mech consciousness was now stranded, just like his and Samda’s. The realization that he was technically dead hit him like a tsunami. He had no body to go back to. He had no hope, and wasn’t adequately equipped to process the absurdity of that notion.

  The captain answered the mech’s question the best that he could. “
We could reach out to our Gray cousins for assistance. They might have a way to help us.”

  A bunch of metal heads nodded in agreement, but a single voice called out, “I’m done with this life. If there’s no hope to go back to my own body, then I’d prefer to check out.”

  A few more voices concurred. They wanted to be put out of their misery too.

  Chris wondered how many thousands of years would pass before he gave up on life, just like they were doing now.

  The captain said, “I need someone to open up dialogue with our cousins. Be sure to express just how sorry we are about the way everything has unfolded. Be sure to tell them that we were wrong and that we’d like to return home. Get a hold of our ships in orbit, tell them what has happened, and have them come and pick us up.”

  Chris yelled out in annoyance, “What about me and Samda?” He was pissed that he’d been so quickly overlooked.

  The captain paused, upset that he now had an additional worry.

  The jerk mech, who had insulted and threatened Chris earlier, yelled out, “Give them a ship, Captain. The Earthman saved us. We owe him that.”

  Chris was surprised. Maybe the jerk wasn’t so bad after all. Then again, Chris had just saved everyone in the room and probably all of existence too, and so deserved their respect.

  The captain obviously hated the idea, but when enough votes of agreement came his way, he had no choice but to relent. “Chris and Samda can take the collector ship. I don’t ever want to see that ship again anyway.”

  A voice called out, “But we can learn much from the tech. We can reverse engineer it to better our people. You should give them one of our ships.”

  The captain stood taller. He yelled angrily, “The collector ship was created by the vilest creature the universe has ever known. I want rid of it. That’s final.”

  No one else had the courage to disagree with the captain’s decision.

  Always a Catch

  Chris, Samda and the alien mechs all stood outside and waited for the orbiting ships to land.

  The first mate hurried over to the captain and said, “I just got done speaking to our cousins. The Grays don’t trust us yet. They think it’s a trap. They said we can meet them though, on their terms. I already uploaded the coordinates they gave me into the ships. Oh, they also said to disable our weapons before we arrive.”

  “Forget that. If they can’t trust us, then we shouldn’t trust them. Leave the weapons the way they are.”

  The first mate shook his head sadly. “Trust issues are part of what got us into this mess.”

  “You’re right, but I don’t care. I’m not going to meet with our sworn enemy unarmed. That’s just stupid.”

  “With an attitude like that, we might never see home again.”

  “We’ll be fine.”

  Samda pointed up at the sky as the first ship broke the cloud cover. Drones approached it, but within seconds they flew off when they received the expected signal from the transponders.

  Several more ships descended and were met with the same curious drones.

  They landed inside the octagonal courtyard and their doors opened up.

  Number Four walked over to Chris and said, “I’ve programmed the collector ship with a bunch of useful info. It’ll take you to Earth, but I also gave you access to its other arrival coordinates just in case you want to go off on an adventure of your own. The ship will do exactly what it is ordered to do now.”

  Chris said, “Thanks, but I just want to get back home.”

  “I doubt your people will respond well when you show up looking like a monstrous robot. I thought I’d give you some options in case you find your people to be less than hospitable.”

  “Thank you, Number Four.”

  The first mate came to them and said to Chris, “I made a mistake when I spoke to the Grays. They agreed to meet with us, but they insisted we bring them the collector ship. I explained to them that it was impossible because we’d given it to you so you could return to Earth, that the captain had insisted on it. I should have kept my mouth shut. I’m worried that if we can’t make peace with them, they’ll come to Earth to retrieve your ship.”

  “If they want it, they can have it. I’m going to use it to get home, and then I’ll just let it float away into space.”

  “If they don’t find it, they’ll torture and kill your people for information.”

  “But no other Earthling knows where the ship is besides me.”

  “That won’t stop them.”

  “Your people are truly evil. You should be ashamed.”

  “They’re not evil, they’re fearful. They destroyed planets to try and eliminate the specimens we needed for our experiment, to no avail of course. But they only did it to stop the sadistic pseudo-god from conducting her evil experiment. They’ll capture the ship to ensure that advanced technology created by pure evil doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. Their methods are cruel, but their intentions are pure.”

  “Whatever, man. I guess I can only hope you can make peace with them. Once again, my life is in your hands.”

  “I’ll do my best, but be on the lookout.”

  Chris shook his head. If he thought this was going to end well, he was probably wrong. Then again, if he stayed with the ship, he had a real chance of fighting off any Gray invaders. Suddenly he realized that, once again, the mech suit was confusing his thoughts. There was a much simpler solution than putting up a fight, but the suit demanded satisfaction. It thrilled to be put back inside that turret and be set loose to shoot and destroy. He consciously fought the impulses of the suit.

  He said to the first mate, “If I stay with the ship, I can just hand it over to them and avoid annihilation.”

  “I was hoping you’d come to that conclusion on your own.”

  “How long before I know if they’re coming my way?”

  “You’ll know immediately, but I’d give it a few days before abandoning it, just to be sure.”

  Chris was glad to hear that part. He was afraid the first mate would tell him to be on the lookout for months or years for the Grays. Then again, the Grays didn’t seem like the type to procrastinate or dilly-dally when they knew what they wanted.

  Several mechs wheeled out a spherical device from one of the ships and deposited it in the hangar.

  Chris said, “What’s that for?”

  Number Four said sadly, “It’s an EMP device. It’s for those who are staying behind. They wanted to be put out of their misery and that’s the kindest way to do it. It’ll turn off their consciousness like a light.”

  “That’s a shame,” Samda said.

  “It sure is. Come on, I’ll walk you to your ship.”

  Homeward

  Chris had mixed emotions when he said goodbye to the crew that had brought him this far. Sure, they’d kidnapped him, imprisoned him, belittled him, forced him into a mech and put his body into stasis, all against his wishes, but they had done it all to appease a godlike being that was holding their people hostage.

  Plus, if it wasn’t for them choosing him, he’d still be stuck on Earth with a bitch girlfriend and a pointless existence.

  He certainly wouldn’t have done anything nearly as important as save the universe or meet alien life forms if he hadn’t been mistakenly chosen for this.

  For the first time, he wondered if it was even worthwhile going back home. Megan had hated him before. She’d definitely have a hard time coming to terms with his new body.

  He decided that he was done with Megan. He’d seen too much lately to settle for mediocrity any longer.

  He had been on an adventure of a lifetime, albeit reluctantly, and he cringed to imagine how monotonous life with Megan would turn out when he returned.

  He waved goodbye to Number Four as Samda closed the loading hatch. Then he followed her along the labyrinthine corridors of the ship until they were in the command station.

  She took the controls, and she learned quickly, with a little help from the default c
ommands inside her mech.

  When she was confident that she knew what she was doing, she commanded the ship to take them to Earth.

  It lifted off silently.

  The octagonal structure got smaller and then disappeared as they broke through the blankets of clouds. The drones buzzed them but quickly flew off.

  As soon as they were past the atmosphere, the ship instantaneously whisked them to Earth’s orbit.

  Earth Orbit

  Chris said, “We’ll hang out here for a couple of days in case the Grays come after the ship. If they do, I’ll give it up peacefully and then we’ll go landside. If they don’t show up in two days, chances are they won’t come, and then we’ll be able to go down to Earth without any worries.”

  Samda smiled and said, “I know that. I heard you talking to the first mate.”

  Chris had an epiphany. “I have a couple of friends who would shit their pants if I brought them to this ship. Would you mind if I brought them up?”

  Samda seemed nervous. “Will they be afraid of me?”

  “Of course they will, but they’ll be just as afraid of me. We’re both behemoth robots from space.”

  Samda smiled. “I keep forgetting that I’m not me anymore, that I’m inside a mechanical vessel.”

  “It’s tough, but we just have to get used to these bodies.”

  “Bring your friends aboard then. I can’t wait to see the looks on their faces.”

  “Me too,” he said. Then he realized he had no way to find them. But Samda was getting used to the ship’s controls faster than he was. She could help. “When they took me, I was with two people. Their names are Dave Rodriguez and Jackie Gibson. Can you see if the ship has a log of that and use it to find them? Then beam them up here.”

  Samda got to work figuring out how to do that. When she was done, she changed the view on the monitor. It showed the holding cell with two humans inside. It was Chris’ friends, and they were terrified.