The Alien's Tensions

by Ruth Anne Scott

  Even worse than the physical suffering of the walk, however, were the thoughts about Frederick. Discovering him in Jacob and Phaedra’s pod, digging through Jacob’s bag, had been startling and left her feeling unsafe and uncomfortable in the ship. Being a part of capturing him and bringing him under their control until Maxim and Pyra arrived had restored some of her sense of stability, but when they found that he had disappeared from his containment unit, the reactions had come back sharper and more impactful. She hadn’t known what they should do. While she definitely didn’t want to remain in the ship when they didn’t know where Frederick was, she didn’t know if it was safe for them to leave without having some idea of how he had escaped and what he might be doing.

  Now as they were walking through the desert she couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being watched. It could have been the pilot watching them from wherever he had gone after he escaped, waiting to make the move that he had been planning all along. It could also be the hybrid army that had been sent to this planet by Ryan for the sole purpose of gaining control of Maxim and Kyven and cutting down all those in their way. Neither thought was reassuring, and she knew that those who were crossing with her were feeling the same way. Leia was grasping Gyyx’s hand tightly and Jacob and Phaedra were doing the same, apparently giving each other strength and courage, but the rest seemed to be alone in their thoughts, locked within their own spheres of existence even as they remained a part of the larger group. Samira looked up at the huge animal that walked along beside them. It was frightening seeing the creature approaching them, but the men seemed comfortable around him and Severine sat on his back without hesitation. This helped her to feel somewhat more at ease, knowing that this creature offered them at least a level of protection.

  The fear was taking over her thoughts, threatening to overwhelm her, and Samira hated the way that that felt. She had been the one encouraging the rest of the women to stay strong and brave and supported her mother in this unknown new chapter ahead of her. Now she was feeling near-panicked and as though she didn’t want to go any further like she wanted to curl in within herself and simply hide from all that she was feeling and what was expected of her. She knew that that wasn’t an option. Instead, she decided to distract herself by learning more about her father.

  “Mom?”

  “Hmmm?”

  “What type of research did he do while you were married?”

  “Martin?” Valerie asked.

  She didn’t sound upset, which put Samira at greater ease. She wanted to be able to talk about her father, to learn more about the man she had never known but who had loved her so much in her earliest days. It was helping her to feel more grounded, reassuring her of herself and the passions that she had always had that had made her seem so totally different from her mother.

  “Yes. Did you get to hear much about the type of work that he was doing at the University? I would love to know if my interests are in the same fields as him.”

  “Honestly, I don’t really know very much about it. We didn’t talk about his work much when we were together.”

  “Was he secretive about it?” Samira asked.

  She wasn’t sure how she felt about the prospect that Martin was involved in something clandestine and hidden. Part of her was excited at the thought, wondering what he could have been working on and the incredible skills and wisdom he must have had to have earned his position within the project, but there was another part of her that felt a heavy sense of dread at yet another unknown. Valerie gave a short, soft laugh.

  “No,” she said. “It wasn’t that he was secretive. I mean, I know that whatever he was working on was classified and that he wasn’t supposed to talk about the details, but he never made me feel as though he was hiding something from me. Your father was exceptionally good at compartmentalizing his life. Whether he was supposed to talk about it or not, I know that he wouldn’t have spent the time that we had together talking about work. He left that behind him when he left work for the day. When he was home with me, he wanted to talk about us and the things that we enjoyed doing together.”

  Valerie’s voice sounded misty and emotional, but at the same time, she seemed happier and more alive every time that she talked about Martin. It was as if she was finally rediscovering who she used to be. Even though Samira didn’t really know her mother when she was still with Martin, she felt somehow like she knew this version in some place deep within her, and that made it wonderful to engage with her this way.

  ****

  “Thank you for telling me about him.”

  Severine could hear the emotion in Samira’s voice and felt her heart swell slightly.

  “Of course,” Valerie said. “He is your father. You deserve to know about him. I should never have kept these things from you when you were younger. I thought that I was doing the right thing by not fighting against Randall when he erased him, but I should have done more.”

  “There’s no purpose in thinking about that anymore. There’s nothing that we can do now. All that matters is that we are away from him and we never have to do anything that he says again. You can think and want and do anything that you want now.”

  “It does feel good to talk about Martin again after so many years. He was always in my heart, of course, but I rarely let myself even think about him. I felt like I was starting to forget what he looked like or sounded like. Being able to talk about him now is bringing back all the memories. He’s alive in my mind again, as if I just saw him yesterday.”

  “I love that I know more about him now, but the more I do, the more I wish that I would be able to go visit his grave.”

  Valerie sighed.

  “I know, Honey. But you have to remember what we talked about. It’s a good thing that his body wasn’t able to be recovered. We wouldn’t want him to lie there forgotten with no one to visit him or acknowledge what he once was. Without his body, I can feel like no matter where I am or what I’m doing, I’m with him and can honor him.”

  Those words made the warm feeling within Severine disappear and replaced it with thoughts of the body that she and Rilex found. She hated that he was left alone in the tunnel with no identity, no honor, no respect, no memory. There was nothing that indicated who he had been when he was alive or what had brought him to lie in that tunnel forgotten to the rest of the world around him. She thought of the book that the skeletal body had been clutching when they found him. She had forgotten about that until that moment and now realized that while Rilex had taken it with him when they made their way through the tunnel and to the compound, they hadn’t read it yet. Severine knew that they needed to read the book and find out anything that it might tell them about the man who the skeleton had been.

  It didn’t escape her how strange it was that the book was the only belonging that the man seemed to have with him down in the tunnel. He had the clothing that he had been wearing when he died and the book. No bag. No supplies. No food or water. It brought up so many questions about the man and his death. She wanted to know who he was and why he was down in the tunnels when he died. Did someone put him down there with the intention of him dying in the tunnels? Did it have to do with the book that he had with him? Could he have been a prisoner who was put down there as a form of punishment, perhaps with the intention of him encountering the Meldor? If not, did he get into the tunnels accidentally, or did he go down there for a specific reason and then was not able to get out and died?

  The questions were spinning through her mind, overlapping and becoming a confusing mass of situations and possibilities. She knew that she needed to talk to Rilex and figure it all out. She had the inexplicable feeling within her that she owed it to the man to give him back his identity.

  Chapter Six

  Mordecai pushed through the broken window, wincing at the feeling of the shards still embedded in the windowsill pressing up into his stomach. He adjusted his position to plant his foot on the windowsill so that he could drop down from the window. He didn’t k
now how far the window was from the floor inside, but he didn’t have time to think about it as he pushed away from the wall and fell. Fortunately, the bottom of the window was only a few feet up, ensuring that Mordecai landed safely. He remained crouched close to the floor for several seconds, listening for any indication that someone in the building might have heard the sound of his feet hitting the floor and was coming to investigate. When the factory around him remained silent, he straightened and looked around to orient himself. Though he had expected the interior of the factory to be completely dark, he was grateful to see small emergency lights embedded along the top of the wall. They only emitted a small amount of green glow, but it was enough to help him figure out which direction to go and to navigate the hallway that guided him in the direction of the door.

  The glass portion of the door had been tinted heavily, but as he approached he could still see the silhouettes of the people waiting on the other side for him. He felt a boost remembering how worried they were about him when he offered to go through the window to get inside the factory. He was accustomed to having no one around him care whether he lived or died so long as he followed orders and fulfilled what was expected of him. This small group, however, had seemed genuinely concerned for him and tried to find an alternative to letting him go on his own. They wanted to protect him, and that not only gave him a greater sense of value than he had ever experienced but also increased the commitment that he felt toward them. He was immeasurably grateful to Jonah for all that he and the rest of the crew did to free him from the facility in the laboratory, and Mordecai knew that he would truly do anything for him that he asked in an effort to thank him for saving his life. Now, though, this wasn’t just a fight that he had joined to repay Jonah or even a fight that he had joined so that he could stand up for himself and seek the vengeance that he so desired. Instead, they felt like a unified force, combined in an effort to fight for one another but also for something far bigger than any of them.

  The reaction that had struck him most powerfully, however, was Ilya’s. He had felt the attraction between them growing, but had still not been able to bring himself to say anything to her. When he suggested that he go through the window to get into the factory, though, she had made it boldly clear that this wasn’t something that she wanted him to do. There was greater emotion in her argument, however, and it sounded very different from the way that the others had asked him to rethink his plan. In that moment, it was only them. They were all who were standing there, and they were linked in an intangible, unexplainable way. Mordecai didn’t know what to think of these feelings or what he should do even if Ilya did express that she felt the same way about him.

  He walked to the door and looked for a keypad that would control the lock. When he didn’t find one, he realized that this door was locked with a traditional mechanism, requiring a key to open it. Not having the key, he was unable to unlock the door, but he knew that he could still open it. The continued silence of the factory around him gave him confidence and he stepped up close to the door. Mordecai flattened his palms to the glass to show his presence and leaned close to it.

  “Step back,” he called in. “Get up on the steps.”

  The shadows retreated, and Mordecai took a step back from the door. He aimed his boot and kicked the lock. He felt the door bow and he repeated the kick, causing it to splinter and swing open. The women gasped from outside, but he heard Gannon and Jonah hush them before ushering them in through the broken door. The sound of him breaking through the door was extremely loud and he knew that if there was anyone nearby in the factory, they would have heard it. The group needed to get inside as quickly as possible and make their way further into the building so that they had less of a chance of running into anyone who might be coming their way.

  Ilya was the last to enter the building and Mordecai immediately fell into step behind her, wanting to be close to her. It was the compulsion that he always felt when he was near her. He wanted to guard her, to block her from any negative forces that might be around. She took a slight step back, letting her body brush against his briefly as if acknowledging his presence, and then they started further into the factory.

  ****

  The door that they had entered seemed to bring them into a sub-basement and Jonah felt his lungs burning with breathing in the damp, dirty air. This section of the factory was very much like the outside; rundown and abandoned-looking as if no one had entered it in many years. He thought of all the bottles of Izalux that he and Aubrey had found. He knew by the labels that many of the bottles had been produced very recently, making it impossible that entire structure was like this. There must be a part of the factory that was still in working condition, at least enough to produce the mysterious chemical Jonah now knew was artificial starlight.

  As they made their way through the basement, Jonah began to notice piles of discarded equipment and tools, some covered with dusty tarps. Those that were still exposed looked familiar and soon Jonah realized that these were pieces of equipment from his time. The technology still seemed new to him, reminding him of when it was developed. They climbed a narrow, dusty set of stairs and stepped through a door into another floor of the factory. The remnants of his time continued along this path. Faded signs and painted designs on the walls reminded Jonah of the businesses and labs from his time on Earth. It was strange to see these so aged and forgotten when in his mind it had only been a few years since they were put in place. He struggled to remind himself that there was a long stretch of time that had passed without him, his mind and body closed off from the passage of years around him. Though he hadn’t experienced the changes, they had gone on.

  While somewhat more tended-to than the basement below, this section of the factory still seemed largely untouched and they made their way through it quickly. They approached the tightly closed doors of an elevator, but Jonah hesitated. They had no way of knowing if the elevator would work and if it would be safe to use. Even if it did work, Jonah didn’t like the idea of being enclosed within the small elevator, easily trapped and made vulnerable to anyone who discovered that they were there. The technology that triggered the light in the parking lot was simple, but it could have been a small part of a much larger system that enabled those within the factory to identify when others were there and pinpoint their location. If they entered the elevator, they could recognize that they were in there and stop the elevator, leaving them without means of escape.

  Instead, they continued on until they found a door that led up another staircase. They stepped out onto another floor and Jonah immediately felt a change in the atmosphere. This section still looked neglected, but it was far newer than what they had already seen. Around him, newer elements were placed on top of the old, layers of newer signs and technology pieced on the aged. Jonah felt like he could almost commiserate with the factory. He was just as he was: old, forgotten, mired in legend, but also patched and covered with the new. Inside, Jonah felt like he was the same person he was before he left for the Nyx 23 mission, and that the things that he had learned and that had changed about him hadn’t truly altered him. Instead, they had just layered on top like patches, like the new technology in the factory overlaying the old. It didn’t replace it, and yet the fact that the old was still there underscored that it was considered outdated and had been pushed aside in favor of the new and what still to come. Jonah felt the same way, challenged by the existence of the new scientists, the new discoveries, and the new understanding of the world that existed around him though he didn’t feel that he should have been pushed aside yet.

  They continued on, progressing gradually as they crept through the honeycomb of offices and storage rooms rather than rushing. There was a sense of anticipation around them as if they all were aware that even though this area looked as though it hadn’t been used or inhabited in many years, it was still a part of the misleading factory itself. The building looked decrepit and cast aside, yet the new lock and searing security light proved that it had
not been left untouched as it appeared. That meant that even though it seemed that this area of the factory had been abandoned, it was entirely possible that there were others there with them, waiting for the right moment to strike.

  “Where should we go now?” Gannon whispered.

  Jonah looked over his shoulder and saw the hybrid man looking at Ilya, who was turning her head slowly to survey the space around her. The expression on her face made it look as though she was concentrating, trying to remember what she had done and seen the first time that she had come to this factory. Though it had been only months before, so much had happened to her in that time that Jonah wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that she had largely forgotten the things that she had seen in the early moments that she was within the building. She had already told them that she hadn’t been there to explore the building itself the way that the others from the laboratory had, but rather had gone to confront Ryan about what she perceived as his infidelity. This could have meant that she wasn’t paying attention to the building and how she was getting through it because what mattered to her wasn’t what she was seeing, but getting to Ryan.

  Fortunately, Jonah saw a flicker of recognition in the woman’s eyes and she pointed ahead.

  “If we continue down this corridor and then turn left it will lead to an area that has old cubicles in it. I don’t know what it was used for, but there aren’t any computers or anything. Just empty cubicles with chairs. If we go past that, there’s another staircase that leads up to the first factory floor.”

  “Does that seem strange?” Jonah asked.

  “Why?” Willow asked.

  “The factory floor would have extremely heavy equipment, and Ilya said the first factory floor, which means that there is more than one. Wouldn’t they put the floors with that type of equipment low to the ground rather than stacking in on top of other floors? Doesn’t it make more sense that a floor of office cubicles would be at the top of the factory rather than the bottom?”