Snowed in with the Alien Beast

by Kate Rudolph

  “Hello,” said a tall man with skin so smooth it didn’t look real. “I am terribly sorry for the inconvenience. Please take a seat.”

  AREST WALKED INTO A cage.

  The door behind him slammed shut and bars slid down, cutting off his escape but leaving him with a full view of everything in front of him. The cage was tiny, not even large enough for him to lay down and stretch out. Barely long enough to pace.

  But he took in his surroundings and tested the bars. They were strong and embedded in the stone from the ceiling down to the floor. No amount of jostling would see them free. On the floor at his feet a control panel faintly glowed, the buttons for opening and closing identical to the ones he’d seen earlier.

  So the cage wasn’t for him.

  He held himself back from lifting the bars. They’d slid down for a reason and Arest wanted to know why. Something tickled the back of his mind, something he was supposed to be doing. But he couldn’t summon the thought to the forefront, couldn’t make himself know what he didn’t remember.

  The room outside the cage wasn’t very different from where he and Stella had slept. The walls formed a circle and ended in a dome overhead. But unlike that room, there was no control panel on the wall, and on the far side, in a space almost completely shrouded in shadow, he thought he spied an opening big enough to be a short door into the room.

  Nothing moved in those shadows, but his senses were on high alert. An unfamiliar scent tickled his nose, much like the creatures he’d already encountered, but more. Worse. He remembered the gouges on the floor in the room behind him and knew that whatever had made them, used this room too.

  Nicks scored the metal of the bars and Arest reached out a hand to trace them. The scores were superficial, but anything that could do that much damage to metal this thick could end him with a swipe.

  The shadows stirred and one of the creatures he’d fought scurried out, scuttling across the room, claws clicking against the stone floor. It stayed away from where Arest stood, but Arest took a step back, just in case something decided to reach for him. But the creature paid him no mind.

  It ran in circles, scratching against the walls and doing its best to stay away from the shadows that it had crawled out of. Arest crouched and peered, trying to make out what it was running from. A little keening sound of fear escaped the creature’s throat and danced down Arest’s spine. He knew terror when he heard it, no matter the species.

  The shadows moved.

  Sharp claws and sharper teeth glinted from the faint light as a beast more than twice as tall as Arest slid out of the shadows. It moved on agile feet, its height belying a grace one only found in dancers and assassins.

  The running creature’s keens turned to screams and it fell over, backing into the wall and scraping desperately, trying to escape an inescapable fate.

  Arest watched it all, heart pounding madly. It wasn’t a fight. The creature might have posed a little danger to him, might have gotten in a few lucky shots, but against a monster as big as this one, it had no hope. The monster reached out and snatched the creature up, breaking it without bothering to first put it out of its misery.

  It took its prize back to the shadows and the sounds of slurping, of feeding, echoed throughout the room. Blood coated the air and was thick in Arest’s throat.

  He looked back down at the panel on the floor. Someone wanted him to press the button and lower the bars. Someone wanted him to fight the monster.

  It was his only way out. The only problem was, he didn’t know if there was a way to survive.

  HE WASN’T A MAN. OR, well, a person. Gender assignment could get tricky when talking about alien races, but Stella wasn’t dealing with an alien at all. The thing in front of her was an android, a man-shaped robot. He looked almost human, except for that impossible skin which looked a little green under the harsh lights overhead. But he moved with mechanical grace, flowing rather than walking, and his speech was too stilted, as if he was busy translating code into words.

  But she doubted that he’d been made on Earth. Or by humans. Her own people’s androids were much more effective than this, the only thing giving them away the embedded collars they were legally required to wear.

  She didn’t know whether to be mad or glad that she wasn’t interfacing with a person. She could punch a person for locking her here and separating her and Arest. But if the android didn’t have protocols that forbid it, he might just give her the information that she needed to get her man back and get out of here.

  “Where are we?” she asked. “What planet is this and what is this place?” You had to be specific with machines or you wouldn’t get the answers you really wanted. Their logic worked differently.

  “This is a control room,” the android explained. “I am the Keeper, left to watch over this facility after the evacuation. We are on the planet of Prellys in the territory of Cyrmariun. Now please have a seat. I am instructed to see to your comfort.”

  She studied him for several moments. But he was an android, and they didn’t have emotions, not like people did. Androids didn’t normally hurt people, so Stella decided to go along with him. For now. “What is this facility?” The control room around them had two computer stations, but only one was active, the lights blinking and the screen showing some sort of feed that Stella was too far away from to make out.

  The Keeper’s eyes flicked, a silver sheen rolling over them momentarily. “This facility dealt in research for a planetary corporation.”

  “And it was abandoned? When?” Stella didn’t try to push for more on the company, as she didn’t want to run into roadblocks in his programming. Androids could get... difficult if you pushed.

  But the Keeper had no trouble answering this question. “Seven months ago. Our scientists are safe at a secondary location in Marad, the city over the next hill. Once this location is safe, they will return and continue their research.”

  “Why isn’t it safe now?” Questions about Arest’s wellbeing got caught in her throat, but Stella kept them in. She needed to know as much as she could about this place, and if the android was talking, she needed to pursue the questions.

  “The inner perimeter has yet to be breached, but as a precaution, all living personnel have been moved to safety.” That wasn’t an answer.

  Stella pivoted again. “How will it be made safe again?” Though she already dreaded the answer.

  “A beast to fight the beast.” The Keeper’s head snapped up and he glided to the other chair, sliding it into the functioning workstation and punching at the keyboard with swift fingers. Stella tried to figure out what he was doing, but he moved too fast for her eyes to follow.

  Arest. He’d told her a little about his past, about his function. And he’d been brought here for the same reason, to destroy. “Did you cause the ship crash?” She would never ask a human like that, but androids didn’t know how to be offended.

  The Keeper didn’t look up from his work when he spoke. “Of course not. It has brought far too much attention to the area. If it weren’t for the storm outside, Marad authorities would have insisted on entering the caves. Once the beast entered, the outer gates were sealed for added security. You have the deepest apologies from my operators for the trouble this has caused.”

  “Where is Arest?” She couldn’t hold it in any longer. “Why did you separate us?”

  The Keeper looked up, something like puzzlement on his too smooth face. “For your protection, of course. Only the beast is authorized to access the inner perimeter.”

  “So I can leave?” She wouldn’t, not without Arest, but she had to ask.

  The Keeper shook his head. “You must stay with me. My programming does not permit me to open the outer doors while security officers are so close, back at the crash site. I cannot request a countermanding order until the storm blows over and communications are clearer.” So until the snow cleared, she was as good as his prisoner. Great.

  “Can you tell me your orders?”

&nb
sp; “Yes.”

  Damn androids. It was like being in school all over again. “Will you tell me your orders?”

  He hit a few more buttons on the keyboard and turned completely back to her. “I am to monitor the beast’s progress and see to it that he finds his target. If necessary, I am to render all assistance in seeing that he terminates the target. Once completed, I must contact his operator and my own and await further instruction. If necessary, I am permitted to subdue the beast so long as I do not cause lasting harm.”

  “And you’ve been leading him,” and me, “to this... target?”

  “Yes. Would you like to see him?”

  Stella surged forward out of her chair and next to the android. “Where is he? Is he okay?” Her gaze snagged on the view screen and she saw Arest caught behind bars, crouching low and staring into a patch of darkness. “Why is he locked up? Let him out!”

  The Keeper didn’t do anything. “I have no control over the viewing chamber bars. As a precaution, they can only be activated by the person standing in the chamber. Once the beast is ready, he will lower them and do his job.”

  “The... whatever you want him to kill is in there with him?” Punching an android was sounding more and more satisfying by the moment.

  “Not at the moment, no. But once the beast is ready, he will act. If not—” he cut himself off.

  “What?”

  “Authorization code required.”

  Damn it! Stella rocked back in her chair. She watched the video feed and glanced back at the Keeper, who sat preternaturally still. Her mind played through the options of how that sentence could end. But she knew what he was forbidden from telling her. He’d already said it, even if he hadn’t used so many words.

  The Keeper was to render all assistance to Arest. And if he needed motivation to lower those bars, the Keeper would make sure he had it. By making Stella bait.

  CHAPTER TEN

  THE MONSTER CAME BACK later in the night, or what Arest thought of as the night, and prowled around the room. Arest’s own muscles had gone cold and stiff from his confines. He longed to run, but settled on squats and vertical pushups, body parallel with the bars and pushing from a headstand.

  The scent told him he wasn’t alone.

  This wasn’t the monster’s first time back. As the hours of the day wore on, he’d come in and out, walking right up to Arest’s cage and sniffing him out. Another of the smaller creatures had wandered in to its own doom, and at each opportunity, Arest watched.

  But this time was different. Instead of sniffing or devouring an unprotected beast, the monster ambled up to the cage on sure feet. He crouched beside it and studied Arest, their eyes locked.

  He saw intelligence. And anger. So much anger. Even more, he saw himself, the thing he’d been becoming until crash landing on this forsaken planet and finding his salvation in the arms of an irresistible woman.

  But understanding did not lead to pity. Pity got a man killed, and the longer Arest stood in this cage, the more sure he became that his job was to end this beast any way he could.

  His only warning was a tensing of the monster’s shoulders before it lunged for him, plunging a thick arm between the bars of the cage, expertly aimed to skewer him on its claws. Arest jumped back, pressing himself flush against the wall and barely missing the swipe of huge claws.

  The monster pulled back, intelligent enough to know he couldn’t reach Arest. And Arest studied him with new eyes. This creature could end anything with brute force, but it had to be smart to take its prey unsuspecting, lunging with moves too fast for its size. Had it been something else before? Like Arest? It was the shape of a man, two legs, two arms, and a head, but hair covered its naked body, thick enough that it was almost a layer of clothing, obscuring the parts Arest would rather not see.

  And obscuring any weaknesses.

  But it was made of skin and bone, not rock or the metal of this cage. As long as his claws here strong enough, he could tear through skin and take it down. He just had to be cunning... and close.

  As the monster disappeared into the shadows and down whatever hidey hole he’d claimed, Arest looked around again. This time, something caught his eye. A red light blinked high on the ceiling and a shaft of light reflected off a piece of glass embedded up there.

  A camera.

  As he stared, the light went black, no longer signaling whether the camera was active or not. He’d guessed he was being monitored, and now he knew for sure.

  It changed nothing.

  His stomach growled and Arest knew he had to make a decision. He’d lost his pack at some point and had neither food nor water. The stone behind him would not open again, not until he did what he was supposed to. Maybe not even then. But his only chance at survival was to kill the monster. Only then would he be able to find Stella.

  A panel in the stone next to his cage opened and Stella was thrust through. Without thought, Arest stepped on the controls of his cage to raise the bars and pulled her in, lowering the bars before the monster could realize he was vulnerable.

  He pressed her against the wall and the bars brushed against his back. If the monster came back, he’d be able to get one of them, and Arest would do anything to keep Stella safe.

  He ran his fingers through her hair, cradling her face and touching his forehead to hers. Her own fingers pressed against his chest, sliding around and making him think of things that were completely inappropriate for the location.

  “How?” he asked, wishing his mind would give him more words. “Here?”

  She kissed a line along his jaw, holding him close, and as she touched him, he realized this had nothing to do with sex. She was checking him for injuries. “You’re okay,” she said, more to herself than him.

  Okay might have been relative. But he had Stella in his arms, right where she belonged. “How?” he asked again.

  She took a deep breath and hot air blew over his shoulder. “There’s an android in charge of this place. He has a feed in here, but he can’t hear us.”

  She stroked a hand up his back and Arest made a noise in the back of his throat that he didn’t know he was capable of making. His soul rejoiced that she was here beside him even as he would have wished her anywhere else.

  “He said that you were taking too long,” she continued. “You needed motivation. Me.”

  He was going to murder the android for putting her in danger, even if the thing wasn’t technically living. Just as soon as he got them out of there. He reached down to disengage the cage once more, but Stella put a hand on his chest to stop him.

  “He’s going to try to subdue you once it’s done,” she warned. “But he won’t kill you. We need to stop him before he calls his operator. There’s a storm outside that’s blocking him. He can’t get new orders yet.”

  None of that mattered. Not right now. Not when he had to keep her safe. He heard the distant sound of footsteps and knew their time was up. Arest cradled Stella’s face and pressed a hard kiss to her mouth before pushing her as far back as he could and raising the cage bars. He stepped out and she stared at him, a hand on her lips, tracing where he’d marked her.

  Then, without being told, she reached down and pressed the button to lower the cage and block herself off. Arest gave her a sad smile and turned towards the shadows.

  It was time to end this.

  SOMETHING CHANGED IN Arest as he stepped outside of the cage. This wasn’t the man who’d held her close or brought her to the heights of pleasure. As he stepped further and further away, the man burned away until she saw the beast underneath, the thing he’d been made into.

  And it was beautiful.

  Violence flowed over him like a work of art, but nothing so restrained as the things she saw in museums. He didn’t step out to fight. He became the fight, ready to rip into his opponent, no matter the cost.

  Stella trusted him with her life, with her body, and perhaps with her heart. But as a monstrous creature emerged from the shadows, she didn’t know th
at she could trust him to overcome this obstacle. The camera feed hadn’t done the thing justice. It stood more than three meters tall and had the shape of a person, but with overgrown muscles and teeth as big as a crocodile’s. Its claws were machetes and Stella’s fists clenched as it swung out at Arest, only missing him as her man jumped back at the last second.

  She wanted to close her eyes, but even as they fell closed she forced them back open. She pressed herself far back against the wall, as far from the bars as she could. That thing had big arms and she didn’t trust the cage to keep her safe.

  What went on between her beast and the monster seemed like more of a sparring match than a fight. They feinted at one another, swiped and dodged, but neither got in their blows. Though Stella wasn’t the praying type, she whispered one, hoping some Earth god or the ones on this planet would hear and keep Arest safe.

  A blinking light in the ceiling high above her showed that the Keeper was watching, and she knew he felt whatever the android equivalent of satisfaction was. His plan had worked perfectly. The moment she was put at risk, Arest stepped up and did what he was supposed to with no regard for himself.

  The monster lunged and she gasped as his claws caught on Arest’s arm, sending a spray of red blood across the wall. But the wound merely looked terrifying. Arest didn’t even glance down to check on the bleeding, instead charging in and diving, aiming for the monster’s feet, which came more than halfway up his chest. Claws dug into the monster’s leg, but like Arest, he didn’t seem to feel it. Arest rolled away, putting space between them once more.

  Stella looked around. Was there anything she could use to help? Could she distract the monster or give Arest some kind of weapon? The Keeper had said he was instructed to render any aid that he could, but that didn’t seem to involve a blaster or a las gun. As the monster roared, she realized it was probably because this facility couldn’t risk arming something like that.

  Why couldn’t he just be some simple creature like the ones they’d encountered in the hallways?