Ashes in the Sky

by Jennifer M. Eaton

  12

  The voices resonating through the corridor deepened, not quite sounding melodious anymore. I grabbed my necklace, drawing on my mother’s courage as I rounded the corner.

  A small gathering of purple people crowded the hallway. One alien shoved another. The shovee made a fist and slammed it into the other guy’s jaw. I backed around the wall and out of sight. I didn’t want to be near an alien fistfight any more than I wanted to be involved in a parking lot brawl.

  A controlled retreat was the sensible thing to do, but the journalist inside me hit the movie button and held Old Reliable around the corner. I counted to five, changed the setting on my camera to sport, and clicked off a few still shots. I didn’t even check the preview screen. I just clicked the shutter button and hoped for the best.

  I poked my head out. Three more aliens that had been onlookers joined the fight. I snapped four more pictures, drew back out of sight, and slipped my camera into my backpack. Those were not the right aliens to ask for directions. Time to make an exit, Jess.

  I headed back the way I came, smacking head-on into a chest. A fully dressed, human chest.

  Poseidon’s chestnut locks shifted across his shoulders as he tilted his head and looked down at me. Dang, was he that tall the first time I met him?

  “Are you lost, Jessica?” His lips twisted as he said my name, as if the word tasted bad.

  I adjusted my backpack on my shoulder. “Oh, hi, Ambassador. Yeah, I fell through a wall and kinda landed here.”

  The fight around the corner escalated. Poseidon-dude raised his hand to silence me. I stayed put while he rounded the corner and spat a few stern-sounding Erescopian words. The commotion ended instantly.

  He returned and pulled me in the opposite direction. “You should not be wandering alone. Allow me to return you to the upper levels.”

  Upper levels? I thought we’d started in the lower levels. Then again, all those hallways Nematali lead me through could have been inclining for all I knew.

  I followed the ambassador as best I could. Damn, he walked fast. “Thanks. I had no idea how to get back.”

  “Of course you wouldn’t.” He gazed remained fixed straight ahead. “Are you enjoying your stay with us?”

  “Yeah. I met some cute kids and saw the recycling center. I also met the people working on the Mars project.”

  “You are supposed to be with the surgeons now, are you not?”

  “Umm, maybe. I’m not sure. We were heading to an appointment when I fell through the wall and got lost.”

  He stopped abruptly and spun. His nose flared as his gaze bore down on me. “Our technology is quite different from yours. You need to be more cautious while you are here.”

  He had that condescending tone that added idiot to the end of his sentence without actually saying the word. He must have been a father.

  I hunched my shoulders and kept my mouth shut, hoping we didn’t have to walk too far.

  Without warning, he grabbed my arm and pulled me into a wall. The chill stabbed my cheeks until we re-entered the heat of the hallway standing right in front of Nematali.

  “I believe you lost something,” Poseidon said. “Take better care of your charge, or I will have someone take care of her for you.”

  Nematali looked down and folded her hands.

  Shoot. I didn’t mean for her to get in trouble or anything.

  Poseidon backed into the wall and disappeared. The muscles in my shoulders relaxed. That guy was wound way too tight for me.

  “Sorry,” I muttered.

  Nematali smiled. It didn’t even seem fake. “As long as you are all right. But we are now behind schedule.” She began walking. “They will not wait for us. Timetables must be kept.”

  Whoa. Seriously? No fifteen-minute lecture on being responsible or anything? I was liking this chick more and more. “So, the ambassador said we were going to see a surgeon?”

  “That is correct. I thought it would interest you to see an exteriation.”

  “What’s an exteriation?”

  She touched her cheek. “Putting on a covering like this.”

  A twang riddled through me. I’d almost forgotten she wasn’t human. “You need a doctor to do that?”

  “It is ideal to have a medical practitioner available. The process is quite painful.” She picked up her pace.

  “It is?” I jogged to keep up with her.

  “This coating is amalgamated to my skin. It takes several minutes.” The muscles in her neck flinched. “Several very long minutes.”

  I remembered finding David rolling on the grass back on Earth, holding his head and screaming. I thought he was reacting to the same ear-shattering noise I had heard, but there hadn’t been any sound at all. What I’d heard was David poking around in my head, stealing my language and the appearance of the men of my dreams.

  He hadn’t heard the noise; he’d caused it. So the thrashing and screaming must have been his body changing. No wonder he’d looked terrified. He’d just bonded a human form onto his own—and without the care of a doctor.

  “Your people don’t need to hide anymore. If putting on a human suit hurts so much, why do it?”

  “Our research shows that humans are uncomfortable with what they see as different. The Caretakers decided that we should continue our endeavor to blend with your culture, in the name of peace.”

  “Does that mean all of you are going to put on human suits?”

  “No, only those who are required to interact with humans.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the wall on our right. “Come.”

  We sank through the partition. The cold shot straight through my clothes until we stepped into a room not much bigger than my closet. Four chairs took up most of the floor in front of a huge window. I shook off the ghostly fingers of the wall still tickling my skin, and looked through the glass.

  A deep, sterile-white room loomed several feet below us. Three aliens centered their attention on a view screen tilting out of a shiny, plastic-like table. To their right, a man, human at least on the outside, staggered through an array of shiny, swirling silver tables. Two tall, naked Erescopians assisted him while another tapped on one of a few dozen video panels sunken into the walls. Swirling symbols scrolled across the screens.

  The man cried out, and his alien helpers guided him to sit on one of glistening tables.

  “Is he sick?” I asked.

  “No. We are too late. He has already gone through the process.”

  “Bummer,” I whispered.

  I raised my camera and shot off a few pictures. Hearing Steven Callup’s voice poking around in my brain, I took extra photos, chronicling everything in the room.

  I zeroed in on the twisted features contorting the man’s face. “He looks like he just got a root canal.”

  “As I explained earlier, the exteriation process is quite painful and exhausting. Some handle it better than others.”

  The doorway to the medical facility below opened, and a tall Erescopian bounded into the room and faced the alien doctors. His angry voice echoed through the walls, barraging us like ten-point surround sound with attitude.

  I raised my camera and clicked off several rounds. His pearly-violet skin strained over deeply etched muscles that caught the stark lighting in the room. A deep purple patch snaked along his left side, forming an intricate pattern that reminded me of a dragon. Click.

  One of the doctors backed away from him, muttering in Erescopian. The intruder turned toward another doctor, stepping backward toward our window. His upper back seemed a deeper, darker violet than the rest of his body. Scarred maybe?

  Scarred.

  My mind flashed to the final night David and I had been together on Earth, when he threw his body over me, protecting me from the punishing lights of the alien scourge. His flesh had melted away, leaving him weak, burned, and bleeding.

  My finger shook on the shutter release. David had nearly died savin
g me that night. And he would have been scarred. Scarred exactly like this man.

  I closed my eyes and let my senses take over. The sound of the voice seemed familiar, but the fear and confusion coursing through my veins came only from within me. I couldn’t feel David, but the tone of the voice, the scars … It had to be him.

  “What are they saying?” I asked Nematali.

  Her lips formed an O. “I think we should come back another time.”

  “No. I know that’s David. What’s going on?”

  The doctors raised their voices, gesturing toward the door. I opened my mouth to question Nematali again, but clamped my hands over my ears as the walls trembled. A bellow echoed through the room, shattering me to the core. David dropped to his knees.

  “David! What’s going on?”

  “Come. We must go.” Nematali tugged my shoulder, pulling me toward the exit, but David screamed in another deep bawl of agony.

  “Let me go!” I pulled away from her and slammed my hands against the glass. My mouth dried as David bent over, clutching his stomach. “I have to get down there.”

  “You cannot.”

  David twisted, fell, and writhed on the floor. Two of the doctors lifted him onto a table.

  My hands shook. “Please. He needs me.”

  “That is highly unlikely, and that room is at our normal ship’s temperature. It is an infirmary. We cannot cool it for you.”

  “I don’t care. I like it hot.”

  “You don’t know what you are asking. We have cooled every area you have passed through to make you comfortable. Our normal ship’s temperatures may harm your lungs.”

  My gaze drew back to the glass. Below, David thrashed, screaming and clawing at his chest. The doctors tried to hold him down.

  “What’s wrong with him?”

  Nematali quaked beside me. “He asked for a medically induced exteriation. When they refused, he initialized the crisis chip in his jaw.”

  David moaned, arching his back.

  “What are you talking about? What’s a crisis chip?”

  “It is the same tool he used to change into human form on Earth. They are surgically implanted into all pilot’s mouths. When he returned from your world, he was given a new one.”

  One of the doctors flashed a light over David. After a moment, he stopped struggling.

  “What are they doing?”

  “A neural disruption. It deadens the pain, but only for a short period.”

  I held up my camera and fired the shutter three times as the expressionless Erescopians stood around David’s long, metallic table. His chest rose and fell as a thick, blue material spread over his legs.

  Denim. Holy cow. I clicked the video button.

  My heart battered against my ribcage as white cotton stretched over his chest and midriff—the same white tee-shirt and jeans I’d found him wearing in the woods two months ago. Where was it coming from?

  Half human, but violescent from the arms up, David clawed his temples and shrieked. A deep cold encompassed me despite the room’s heat. I stopped recording and lowered my camera. That tormented cry dug its nails through my memory, bringing me back to the day we first met.

  I struggled to keep from covering my ears as his anguished screams eased into labored tears.

  Nematali placed her hand on my shoulder. “You shouldn’t have been made to witness this.”

  I didn’t answer. I wasn’t sure what I would have said anyway.

  My hands trembled as David pushed up to a shaky sitting position, facing the far wall. His shirt clung to his back, accentuating well-sculpted muscles and strong arms that tested the seams of the taught cotton. His body quaked as if working through a sob, before he ran his fingers through his nearly black hair.

  Another whimper slipped from David’s lips. He pawed at his stomach as my own belly clenched. Something inside me twisted and propelled me forward. I needed to go to him, hold him, and shelter him from the pain.

  David cried out and spun toward us. Slightly bronzed, peachy membrane bubbled as it stretched over his cheeks and formed a human nose. Long lashes fluttered over eyes as blue as Earth’s sky on a clear summer day. I shook off the shock and raised my camera. Click.

  But my lungs grew heavy. This was David … in agony. What kind of person takes pictures like that?

  Our gazes met. Dread flooded through me, then pressure. But not pushing toward me. More like pulling in. Concealing. Hiding. I let my camera fall to my waist.

  I shouldn’t be here. I needed to leave. Now.

  I turned toward the door.

  Wait. I couldn’t leave him. I’d never leave him. I struggled against the foreign strength pushing me toward the exit.

  I blinked, and my mind cleared. My gaze shot back to David. “Nice try,” I whispered. “I’m not leaving you.”

  “No!” David’s voice blasted through the walls. “Get her away. I can’t—” He fell forward, folding at the hips.

  I slammed my fists against the glass, as if it would bring me closer. David grimaced, and my heart broke to pieces when Jared Linden’s face looked back at me: the features of an actor I’d never met, encasing the eyes of the guy I fell in love with in the woods.

  His entire body convulsed. “Get her out!”

  His eyes widened, and a lance cut into me—a burning hot poker that sliced through my chest and skinned me alive. I dropped my camera and screamed, clawing at the phantom creatures gnawing off my flesh.

  Nematali grabbed me. “What’s wrong?”

  Her words drowned beneath my shriek, ricocheting through my brain.

  I flopped to the floor, rolling to stop the fire from eating through my clothing, but there were no flames to quench.

  “Help me!”

  My back arched, my body struggled to fight against the unseen invader ripping me apart from the inside out. I clawed at my face, but Nematali grabbed my hands.

  “Make it stop!” Tears flooded my eyes.

  Nematali’s blurry form glanced through the window, agape. Her gaze returned to me.

  “Help me!” I barely recognized my voice for the rasp that came from my lips.

  Nematali pulled something out of her pocket, and a flash of silver crossed my eyes. The pain dulled into a swirling torture of pins, whips, and chains assaulting me from all angles.

  “This is your own doing,” Nematali whispered.

  The room faded to black.

  13

  A male voice sputtered words I didn’t understand. Someone moved beside me.

  “Jessica Natalie?” Nematali’s voice reverberated in my mind.

  The scents of pine and waffles wrapped me up and gave me a hug. I blinked three times, and two people came into focus. Nematali and some purple dude.

  The alien muttered something in Erescopian. He placed a rigid container next to me on the couch.

  I blinked the sleepiness from my eyes. Was I home?

  “I’m telling you, she felt his pain,” Nematali said.

  “That is not possible.” The dude leaned down, nearly touching my nose.

  “Of course it isn’t possible. That’s why I called for you.”

  He took something out of his pack. “She’s human. No one would take such a risk.”

  “No one ever said Tirran Coud wasn’t young and impulsive.”

  “Would someone mind telling me what is going on?” I asked, sitting up.

  “You have had a difficult afternoon.” Nematali tapped my shoulder.

  Tremors of needles and knives ghosted across my skin. I shuddered. “What happened?”

  “That is what we are trying to ascertain.” The dude held a pencil-sized silver cylinder close to my eyes.

  I shrunk back. “And who are you?”

  “There is no need to fear,” Nematali said. “This is my mate, Falen Nematali.”

  “And that’s supposed to make me feel better because … ?”

  Falen blinke
d his huge, turquoise eyes three times. “Because any other technician would deem you property of the state and cut you open to find out why you seem to have a mental connection to one of our most brilliant scientists.” He waved the cylinder. “May I scan you now?”

  I hugged my shoulders and nodded.

  “Is David all right?” I asked.

  A beam of light passed over my chest.

  “I would think so,” Nematali said. “As I said, the exteriation procedure is not dangerous, it is just painful.”

  Falen pressed the denim beside my zipper and lit me up again with the pencil. “Her physiology all seems to be within human guidelines.”

  He grabbed a clear, thick cylinder from his case and placed it over my left jean pocket. A searing burn shot through my skin and strangled my insides. I screamed before he pulled the instrument away.

  “What the Hell?” I unbuttoned my pants to make sure I wasn’t bleeding. A red welt formed on my skin just under the elastic of my panties.

  “What have you done?” Nematali asked.

  Falen shook the vial, now filled with pinky-clear fluid. “Scientific curiosity.”

  Her lips tightened.

  “I’ve done what you asked.” He slipped the vial into his case. “She will be fine. I doubt your fears are warranted. Our research shows humans, especially young ones, show deep emotional reactions to witnessing stressful events. I suppose that is what you observed.”

  He closed the lid and walked through the front door.

  Nematali kept her eyes down. “I’m sorry he did that. His actions were unexpected.”

  “Unexpected? What did he do? What was in that vial?”

  “Just a tissue sample. You are unharmed.”

  Yeah, tell that to the friggin’ welt.

  Falen just earned position numero uno on my people to avoid list. I shivered and leaned away from Nematali. Maybe I wasn’t as safe with her as I thought. “I want to see David.”

  She pursed her lips. “That isn’t in my control. For now, please rest. I will notify your father that you will be spending the night.”