by Nick Braker
“Greg, forget about the color of the light,” he whispered. “Let’s get back to the group.”
Asher dragged the body back, with Greg shining the light along the way. They couldn’t be as quiet on the return trip and his group wouldn’t necessarily know it was them.
“It’s us,” Asher whispered, as he approached.
Jules ran to Asher, hugging him.
“Wait. Jules. No--”
It was too late, she had already wrapped her arms around him and covered herself with the alien blood still dripping off of him.
“I do not care. I am glad you are okay. You too, Greg. Is that another one?” she asked in a hushed voice.
Greg shined the lantern’s light onto the dead creature. It was covered in its own blood and was black from the neck down. The girls didn’t shy away from the body, in fact, Zara moved to examine it in greater detail. She pointed at the alien’s abdomen. He shifted the light to that section and she traced out a scar along the creature’s left side where none of the blood covered it.
“It looks like a cut,” she said. “It has healed, leaving a scar.”
“We’ll examine the bodies later. Right now, let’s secure the ship. There are likely more of them,” Asher said.
The light from the lantern landed on Jules. She was covered in fluids of various colors. Her bikini top and bottom were solid black as well as most of her arms and abdomen area. It was not a pretty sight.
“Everyone, stay here. Greg, with me,” Asher ordered.
The two of them took the alien body back to the first room and tossed it in with the other creature. Asher hated leaving the creatures there with the other human bodies but there was no choice. While it bothered him, there was really no good reason for his feeling. Asher slid the door shut and motioned for Greg to follow him back.
“We have a light source, which is good, but we are easier to spot. We’ll have to hope the aliens see like us and that they cannot tell who is behind the light. If we find another creature, we approach it with the light in its eyes. Maybe it will work,” Asher said.
“Sounds like a good plan to me,” Brandon said, nodding.
Asher motioned them back in line.
“Everyone, back into the lineup. We need to stay together and move quietly. If we find another one, I’ll move toward it, keeping the light in its eyes. We won’t have much time, so Brandon and Greg, rush it and kill the bastard.”
“Ash, I have that device the first alien used. It’s pointy enough to stab with even if the blue light won’t come on,” Weston said.
“Okay, give it to Brandon. Greg, take this rod you found earlier,” Asher said. “Take it down fast and stay away from those damn blue knives. They cut flesh like it’s butter.”
“Dude, no need. You keep that one. Check this out,” Greg said, as he turned on the device he retrieved from the last alien. The tip ignited in a razor-like blue light. Greg turned it back off, forming an evil grin on his face.
“Shit yeah,” Brandon hissed. “Gut them.”
“Enough talking. Let’s move,” Asher whispered.
For the next thirty minutes, the group moved through the hallway of the ship. They circled through it in a clockwise fashion, stopping at each room to ensure no aliens were present. The first two rooms they had passed in the dark earlier were bedrooms, the next an obvious lavatory and then an airlock. Asher made note of it. He examined the size behind the sealed door and decided this was how they were going to get rid of the alien bodies as they would begin to smell over time. He had plans for this ship that centered on finding Beth’s murderer though his crew didn’t need to know that.
The next section was an open area filled with tables, chairs, and a kitchen area with food that did not appear edible. They moved through the large area with caution but found no other aliens. It was here they passed the only door on the interior wall of the circular hallway and Asher left Brandon and Greg behind to watch it while they finished the circle. The next area along the hallway was an engineering area. It was filled with computers and various electronic equipment. It was also where they had killed the second alien working at the wall panel. After that was another lavatory and finally back to the first room with the dead aliens. Asher motioned them back to where Brandon and Greg were guarding. Their only other route now was the interior door.
“Anything?” Asher asked Brandon.
“Not sure. I hear stuff like bleeps and such every now and then but no movement of any kind,” Brandon said.
“Okay, this must lead somewhere and we could end up fighting a horde of them,” Asher said. “Girls, please stay back while we enter. This door likely leads to a control center like a bridge.”
“We are going with you, Asher. Please do not argue with us about this,” Mira said.
“What?” he replied in disbelief.
Mira just looked at him and waited. Asher made his decision.
“Okay, but would you stay near the back?”
“Yes,” Mira said. “Thank you.”
“Yeah,” he said, not convinced it was a good idea but knowing it would be pointless to order them to stay. “Guys, let’s move in. Weapons ready.”
Asher slid the door open as he had the others. Greg held the lantern high and it revealed a small interior area with a circular ramp leading up on the left. They entered quietly. The air was warmer here as were the floor and walls. Several of them were visibly relieved as the heat from the room seeped into their hands and feet. Jules and Seph even moved to stand against the wall to the right of the door, trying to leach heat from it. Someone was keeping the heat on for a reason.
The group ascended the ramp, each one moving quietly. Their steps were measured and careful, leaving no sound. Even their breathing was hushed. Greg kept the light pointing low in order to see and not shine high enough for someone to know they were there.
Greg grabbed Asher’s shoulder.
“Ash, this ramp has an open top. In other words, we are stepping up into the area above completely in the open. If someone is up there, they will see the light soon,” he whispered.
Asher followed Greg’s gaze and then motioned him to turn off the light. Greg worked with the lantern’s controls and eventually turned it off. With the light gone, the room above slowly became visible as their eyes adjusted to the darkness. The area was not well lit giving them a better chance to sneak up. They continued along the ramp, finally reaching the top. Asher stayed crouched as he moved into the center of a large room with computer systems all around them. They lined the outer walls of this room and were scattered at various stations in the center and outer areas. There were just a few areas open that didn’t contain some station with computer lights and monitors. Soft bleeps and blips came from the stations. The room was various shades of gray, dotted with tiny multicolored computer lights. It was void of odors and smelled neutral. Asher raised his hand, indicating they were not to move and then pointed to his ears hoping they knew he wanted them to listen.
Jules waved back and then pointed to a station holding at least ten monitors. In front of the station was another alien. Its back was turned and, so far, it hadn’t noticed them.
Asher stood and started toward the alien. He was done sneaking. This was the last one and he would kill it.
Chapter 8
ONE MORE ALIEN
The alien’s breathing sounded calm to Asher and its metallic smell was strong though it appeared to be uninjured. The odor was something in their blood. He seemed keenly aware of his surroundings, so much so the hairs on his arms reacted to the flow of air moving by him. He had decided to rush the alien and end this. His friends’ breathing was loud and he sensed Brandon and Weston had decided to follow him. Their hushed gasps of surprise told him they knew he was going directly for the alien alone. Brandon and Weston moved first, trying to catch up to him with Greg taking the rear. They were easily ten steps back when Asher reached the alien.
He tapped it on the shoulder. It turned to face him as if not
hing was wrong but he had already pulled back for one huge haymaker. The swing connected to the alien’s throat first and then finished as the blow crushed the alien’s jaw. His fist had shattered its chin and smashed its throat. It flew through the air along the outer wall, ricocheting off a large built-in computer monitor before landing on the lower section of the outer floor. Asher didn’t stop. He jumped through the air, remembering the low gravity and landed on the alien’s chest with his right knee. He stayed there, frozen in that moment, his knee in the alien’s chest cavity with his fists tightly balled, ready to strike. It never had a chance, let alone understood what had happened to it. The creature had died when Asher hit it the first time.
Greg tried over and over to tell Asher something, but he ignored him. Asher wanted the creature to move, to give him a reason to smash it more. A hand grabbed his fist. It was Jules’ hand.
What is she doing?
His head cleared a little and the fury faded. His eyes focused and he nodded at her. Asher stood, putting his back to the alien and facing his friends.
“Search the ship,” he ordered.
A thorough search of the rest of the ship revealed no other aliens onboard. Asher didn’t even feign surprise when they returned to tell him. The ship was small and, with the number of beds in the sleeping quarters matching the number dead, he had already concluded there were no more of them. Greg had still insisted they look. While he and the guys searched the ship for other aliens, the girls had learned to operate the ship and were even repairing it. The guys had helped by doing the heavy lifting and the girls did the rest. According to Jules, it seemed intuitive to them. She had tried to show him how to pilot the ship but it was nothing like the yoke and foot controls of any craft he’d ever seen. It was indeed alien, yet the girls seemed to know what to do.
It has to be a combination of their intelligence and their female intuition. Right?
The thought didn’t reassure him. It was something he would table and bring up later. The best news was they were not on another planet or moon but were simply in a slow, decaying orbit around Earth. The two aliens were trying to repair their ship while the other one was trying to kill them.
It didn’t bother him how brutally they had killed the aliens. Killing thousands of them would be the best medicine for him right now. Those little bastards had cut open three of the girls from the sorority. In hindsight, he wasn’t even sure he could recall their names, not with everything that had happened.
What was it they were trying to cut out from the back of their heads? Why did they attack that sorority? What were they going to do with all the bodies?
Hundreds of questions filled his mind, leaving him unable to keep up with them. Asher gave up trying to answer them. He stood inside the largest of the ship’s sleeping quarters, alone. All of the near-death experiences were pushing their way to the forefront of his mind. His friends had looked to him when the time had come to fight. They had let him make the call, and when he did, they were all business. He admired that quality in them. They didn’t let fear get in the way when it came to survival.
They had fought and won. The prize behind door number one was an alien spaceship. It was all surreal and yet, familiar. He couldn’t explain it, but everything he experienced since leaving Evansville felt right, including the act of leaving Evansville itself. Everything had happened exactly as it should and yet he had no idea why he felt this way.
“Crazy,” he muttered out loud.
Asher started to leave the bedroom but his mind leapt back to the fight with the aliens and it hit him again, clearer this time. The girls and his friends had looked to him for answers and for leadership. Why did others look to him? It had always been that way. He didn’t like nor want the responsibility and it was one of the reasons why he did things so bass-ackwards. If it meant having fun, he was all in but, if people’s lives were at stake, he wanted no part of it unless it meant finding Beth’s killer. People looked to him for leadership but he hated it. He had been responsible for Beth and he wasn’t able to protect her. She had died as a result. He shook his head as he realized the thought process he was in and where it was going.
“Damn,” he said. “Here I am onboard an alien spacecraft thinking about why I avoid responsibility. Stop over-thinking it.”
He shook his thoughts out of the fog falling around him again. He hated the funk that came over him when he stopped to think about his actions or his situation. His one night stands since Beth were at the top of his list of mistakes, yet he willingly kept making the same mistake over and over. There was no point falling in love, no point in expecting things to go right, there was no point to anything, it never worked out in the end and the all the heartache….
I’m doing it again, over-thinking and mulling on the past, same old guilty feelings.
He forced his thoughts to his surroundings. Asher looked around the room, marveling at the design. Everything in the room was secured or bolted down. The small bed by the door to the interior hallway was nestled in the corner near the outer hull. Near the head of the bed, on the left, was a viewing portal. It was approximately two square feet and crystal clear. It currently showed the blackness of space with small, very bright stars shining through. The view was amazing. The stars were brighter without an atmosphere to get in the way and seeing it for himself was breathtaking. Asher leaned closer into the viewport. There in the distance several stars twinkled on and off. They pulsed several times as if sending him a message in Morse code.
Beautiful.
The other lights, the ones that were brightest, were planets. He stood there for a few uninterrupted minutes watching them. He pulled his gaze away and back to the ship. He still needed to focus and his mind was fighting him.
He tried again. On the opposite side of the semi-circular room was a closet. It opened whenever anyone approached close enough. Motion sensitive. There was even a dresser which contained clothing and various other unidentifiable fabrics located in the middle of the interior wall opposite the outer hull wall. These aliens were humanoid but their skin was different enough that they couldn’t walk down a street unnoticed, except perhaps at Halloween. They had facial features the same as humans but their skin and demeanor were foreign enough to give anyone pause. Unless these three were sickly, their gait and mannerisms differed from humans. The greatest weakness was that they were no match for a human in a physical fight and, if it weren’t for their technology, they wouldn’t be much of a threat at all.
He laid down on the bed taking a deep, relaxing breath. It was comfortable enough. They weren’t hard like he expected, like the surgical tables they were strapped to when they woke up here. Sheets, blankets, and a pillow, all functionally like Earth versions. This room was cleaner and larger than the other two bedrooms.
I might as well take this one.
Asher had made up his mind. The ship was his too and he planned on doing some fantastic things with it. He had pondered landing on the moon and maybe even head over to one of those planets he’d seen through the viewport.
Mars, perhaps? We’d be the first humans on Mars.
The moon and Mars all sounded like fun diversions but their real purpose would be to get all of them trained in operating the ship. They would need it to accomplish his real goal, finding Beth’s murderer.
The ship was fast, though he wasn’t certain how fast. The girls had told him that nothing Earth had today could match it. Asher was still considering the possibilities when he heard someone approaching. The door slid open and Jules shuffled in, stopping at the end of his bed. Her dark brown hair was matted down on each side with several sticky strands clinging to her face. She apparently didn’t notice or more likely didn’t care. Her bikini and exposed flesh had many different colors of liquid stains. Some of it was that black, alien blood but the other colors... those he had no idea where they came from. Now that death wasn’t around the corner, he was able to consider that even in this state she was gorgeous. Knowing the origin of the stai
ns on her didn’t take away from the fact she filled that swimsuit very nicely. Her hips were perfectly smooth and their contour clearly indicated she was athletic. Her breasts were full and well-proportioned to her petite frame. She didn’t seem to notice him staring at her body. Standing, he followed her eyes. They were focused on the viewport. She was staring out at the stars beyond. Her eyes finally caught his as if just realizing he was there.
“Jules, you okay?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “I am so tired but there is no way I can sleep. Too many things to do.”
“Why didn’t you get some rest like the others?” he asked.
She was tired but they made their own decisions on when to sleep and when to work. She didn’t respond and his thoughts slipped back to her bikini again and the fantastic body it covered. He cycled through several ideas that he could use to get her in bed with him. He settled on using her need for a shower. First, he would suggest that she freshen up in his room by taking a shower, making sure there were no towels in the bathroom. Then, he would use the awkward moment where he would be happy to help get her a towel at the right instant to see her naked, then pretend to be so overwhelmed by her beauty and sensuality that he’d drop the towel, stoop over to pick it up while being unable to take his eyes off her, and fumble to speak and even stumble a bit. He started to go through all the details of his plan in his mind when her eyes rolled back into her head. She fell backward and he caught her in the lower gravity with ease and picked her up. She was out cold from exhaustion which was probably aggravated by today’s events. He laid her down on the edge of the bed. He pulled the covers down, lifted her up and laid her down again near the top of the bed, bikini intact. He pulled the covers over her and gently tucked her in. He quietly left the room and the door slid shut behind him.
The interior circle of the ship’s main hallway wasn’t any more interesting now than when he had crouched through it in the dark earlier. The aliens were completely focused on function without aesthetics. The color gray was everywhere, even the alien clothes they had found earlier and now wore.
