by Safa Shaqsy
This is a work of fiction; the names, characters, incidents, and places are the product of the author’s thoughts and imagination. Therefore, any resemblance or any similarity to actual people, either living or dead, environments, or events is coincidental.
Text copyright © 2016 by Safa Shaqsy All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-5272-0576-5 DEDICATION
To my lovely family, who were always there for me.
A Letter from Nathalie
Do you know how it feels to lose your parents? Maybe you’ll answer this question, but it doesn’t matter if you said yes or no. However, imagine if the whole city was against you and no matter what you did or said, no one believed you, because you’re crazy according to them. Well, I do. I know how it feels to be absolutely lonely.
Forget about loneliness. Imagine that you were just doing your stinking job and encountered something strange. Something that people will rage about.
Something that’ll put your life at stake.
Would you keep it?
Table of contents
Chapter One................................................................................................1
Chapter Two............................................................................................11
Chapter Three.........................................................................................21
Chapter Four ...........................................................................................36
Chapter Five ............................................................................................47
Chapter Six ...............................................................................................60
Chapter Seven.........................................................................................72
Chapter Eight ..........................................................................................83
Chapter Nine ...........................................................................................94
Chapter Ten ..........................................................................................104
Chapter Eleven ....................................................................................112
Chapter Twelve...................................................................................125
Chapter Thirteen................................................................................136
Chapter Fourteen...............................................................................149
Chapter Fifteen....................................................................................161
Chapter Sixteen...................................................................................176
Chapter Seventeen ............................................................................188
Chapter Eighteen................................................................................200
Chapter Nineteen ...............................................................................214
Chapter Twenty ..................................................................................226
Chapter One
Friendship is a valuable asset to every man and it does not wither if they’re true. The heat was unbearable that day . We were far from Adkad City. Adkad City was one of the cities on planet Zelea that our ancestors travelled for generations to reach. Zelea is in an alternative solar system, identical to our original solar system that was the home to planet Earth. Humans demolished the Earth and were forced to seek refuge on another planet or satellite to continue the human race.
I breathed in and activated my eye screen, so the scanner could search the aliens’ corpses stretched out on the dry, cracked ground. The air smelled like rotten rodents, and alien blood. Alien corpses were
disseminated everywhere on the arid landscape.
I coughed into my fist almost gagging, “Kraig, dead aliens’ corpses were found in area YR200,” I reported through my Scahet.
“Report your condition, Nat,” Kraig replied. I coughed, “Dying. Desperately need fresh air.”
“Come on Nat, you’re not supposed to say that if you’re not really dying.” Anderson said into the Scahet. I moved to one of the dead aliens that lay on the ground. It had a big gray body and a long tail. I searched for any signs of predators’ attack on its body and surprisingly, its front leg had four scratch marks on its thick gray skin. The scratch marks were cavernous and wide, like a giant predator’s work. I covered my mouth and nose and tried to kick it to roll it over, but it was too heavy, especially with my loaded down suit that we all had to wear when out in the field on missions.
“Kraig, Andie, come here!” I called. I had heard screams and animals crying followed by gunshots. It was probably one of the guys, killing an alien. “Guys, what’s going on?” I asked.
“Kraig,” Andie said out loud. “Report your condition.”
But there was only silence. My breathing quickened, “Kraig?” All I heard was static in my Scahet. Did Kraig die? My stomach dropped. “Kraig, report your condit…” I called, with shaky breath. That’s when I heard a voice.
“Alive and breathing.”
My shoulders relaxed, and I sighed, “Kraig, you scared me to death. You bastard.” “You should have heard yourselves crying over me!” Kraig laughed with confidence, “So worried and emotional.”
“Kraig, you’re officially a jerk, you know that?” Andie said. I shook my head, “You guys have to see this.” I said as I bent down to touch the alien’s greasy skin. “This alien was attacked by something.” It wasn’t right; aliens wouldn’t normally attack another species that was in a big group. It looked like a massacre.
I stood up and looked around at the other dead aliens. What attacked those aliens and why? While I was walking around the large red rocks that pocked the land in search of any clues of the predators’ attack, I heard a purring sound behind me. Not the purring of a pet cat or the gentle whining’s of a submissive dog. I touched the gun in my holster checking if it was there and got ready to react at a moment if I was attacked by an alien. If an alien ever tries to attack me, I was going to shoot it. That was always the plan. There were no plans B or C. It was always kill those damn aliens as our boss Gale Shaver told us to do. He ran the Alien Busters institute that sent us on missions to kill the aliens, minimize their population so we could invade the planet, and call it our home, our planet Zelea.
Something grabbed my shoulder, and I reflexively turned with my gun drawn and aimed at Kraig and Andie.
They both flinched and raised their hands in the air in surrender. “Hey, hey, it’s us.” Andie said urgently and ruffled his black overgrown hair with his hand. They dropped their hands to their sides when I put my gun back.
“After all those trainings and missions, you still get scared?” Kraig said. “You, Nat, surprise me all the time.”
I shook my head, “This crap isn’t getting easier.” “So what do you think happened here?” Andie asked, tilting his head as his eyes rummaged the area. Kraig kneeled down next to a body and touched the four claw marks on the alien’s back. “It seems like some conflict happened between aliens,” Kraig suggested. “It looks pretty normal to me and they definitely made our job easier,” he continued as he scanned the alien with his eye scanner. Because our job was to kill aliens, no questions, no mercy.
“But don’t you think it’s a little odd that the predators, killed a batch of aliens. You know, like killing their own kind?” I speculate
d.
Kraig turned to look at me, raising an eyebrow, like I was being paranoid and crazy like my parents were when they made a speech about aliens, before their deaths. “Nat, it’s like you’re saying that people killing other people isn’t normal and yet criminals do it, governments do it, companies even do it,” he said.
“Kraig, it means if the predators killed those aliens, we could be in danger,” I reasoned.
Andie waved his hands to stop me from talking, so Gale wouldn’t listen to my mumbling, but too late. “Nathalie Jefferson.” Gale called through the Scahet. Kraig stood next to Andie, and both looked at me with panic. “Yes, sir?” I replied, because I shouldn’t have acted unreasonable about the aliens, because I was always watched after my parents’ death. Everyone suspected that I was as mad as they were thought to be.
My parents were Alien Busters like I was, but before their deaths, they tried to influence people with speeches and presentations that there was something different about the aliens that we didn’t know about. I believed them though. Unfortunately, they died before any conclusive proof was announced and I had to continue their work by being an Alien Buster myself. “If you only believed,” my dad used to say in his speeches. It meant if I only believed that what my parents discovered about the aliens wasn’t impossible. If I only believed, and yes, I did believe that aliens and this planet were much more complex than we thought, but it was exactly what my parents were proposing.
“What the hell are you doing? You’re supposed to kill aliens not investigate those bastards’ deaths!” Gale scolded in my Scahet.
Andie chuckled and nudged Kraig’s arm with his elbow to deride me.
“But, sir,” I started, “these aliens were killed by predators. I think we’re in danger.” “I assume you don’t want to end up like your parents. Dead in the field; caused by their lousy curiosity.” Gale bashed, “Focus and start searching for aliens to kill. The squad and the Histers are ready. If you are
outnumbered, just beep. You got me?”
I sighed, “Yes, sir.” I looked at the guys who gave me mocking smiles. “Alright, guys. Let’s do this.” “Okay, paprika.” Kraig teased followed by Andie’s laugh. Many times, have I told him not to call me paprika, because those days were over when we left Soplea together. Soplea was the name of our school as the Earthies used to call it. Kraig, Andie, and I studied there together.
I shook my head, “Shut up and do your job.” I scolded. “You guys go North and I’ll go West,” and I indicated with my head.
Andie nudged Kraig with his elbow and said, “Ouch, she got ya.”
“Whatever, let’s split up,” Kraig said as they moved North and I headed West towards a group of red rocks. I scanned the corpses, and moving forward, when I heard purring again, coming from behind one rock. I approached the opposite side of the rock the noise was coming from. There was something on the ground, about the size of a cat, and it purred like a cat. But instead of fur it had gray skin with blue spots and big black eyes. Four legs, or two legs and arms, I guess. Its hands searched a dead alien’s corpse that looked just like it. It wagged its pointy ears. Its mother was dead like the rest of the aliens.
The small alien turned to look at me and purred, and inhaled the air with its nose holes.
“Hey, little buddy.” I whispered and slowly offered my hand to it. The dead alien was a female and I assumed the little one’s mother. Who would take care of it, it would surely parish out here.
The alien purred and stepped away in fear. “No, no, no, I won’t hurt you,” I said waving my hands carefully. I checked its mother again, and gulped. I felt bad for it.
“Nat, what’s going on?” Andie asked, on the Scahet. “Andie, Kraig, it’s a baby alien. Its mother is dead like the rest.” I reported, as the alien was analyzing me with its dark eyes, as if begging me not to kill it. I hoped that they wouldn’t ask me to do it. Please don’t ask me to do it, please, I told myself.
“Nat, kill it.” Kraig said, through Scahet.
“Kraig, but it’s a baby.” I said.
“It’s orders, and it’s our jobs. We’ve been doing this for a long time. Now is not the time to be soft, okay? Hold yourself together.” Kraig encouraged.
“Kraig. I… I can’t,” shaking my head, “I won’t do it.” Someone heavily sighed in the Scahet in
disappointment. “It’s just an alien. A predator that we’re supposed to kill,” Kraig said. “And stop jeopardizing our positions for this useless creature. Just do it.”
“Do it, Nat,” Andie encouraged. I took my gun and aimed at the alien, who was staring at me with its big glossy eyes. My hands were shaking, while I held my gun to pull fire. I licked my lips, and wiped the sweat off my forehead, “Sorry, buddy,” I said almost to myself.
And it purred, one last purr before I did what was predictable. I shot the damn thing, and reported, “Mission accomplished.”
“Good, now back to searching” Kraig said.
I placed the gun in my holster and kneeled down next to it, “Hey, buddy.” It purred and got closer to me, as I reached my hand out to it. Yes, I had just lied to my team and shot the dead alien instead of the infant. It snuffled my hand and licked it with its rough tongue. I covered my Scahet so Gale couldn’t listen, “Now, you be quiet. I’ll put you in my backpack,” I whispered and opened the backpack for it to get inside. “Get in.” I said, in a low voice.
It looked inside my backpack not comprehending what I had said to it, and I let out a breath. I lifted the alien up and put it inside the backpack, “Okay, here we go. Now be quiet,” and looked in both directions to check if the guys were there. If they found out that I was helping an alien, I’d be in trouble and would probably be fired from my job, or even worse, I could be punished for it.
I took my heavy backpack and reported, “Guys, report your condition.”
“Nothing in here. Heading back to headquarters,” Andie reported.
“Same here. This day was a lot easier. Thanks to the predators for their killings.” Kraig said. “Okay, meet you there with the rest of the Alien Busters,” I reported. I walked a mile to the flars (Floating Cars), where every Alien Buster gathered before leaving for the day. Some of them asked how the mission went, and I shrugged saying that it was the same as every day. A girl bragged about how she killed tons of aliens in one day.
The guys hopped in and sat near me, so I had to be careful not to show them my backpack as we headed back to Adkad City.
Chapter Two
“The mission of an Alien Buster is to demolish aliens by following the leaders’ commands. An Alien Buster cannot reject their chosen missions.”
~Alien Busters Manual, section four, page 45
When I got back home, I placed the backpack on the floor; next to the sofa and opened it. The alien got out purring and looking around with curiosity. Maybe I had a fancy small house, but it was lonely without my parents. So it was new to me to bring a pet home. An alien for a pet, not too bad for Will and Debra’s daughter, who believed that aliens were much more than what people believed them to be or were allowed to know about them.
“This is your new home,” I said as I bent down, and gestured my hands to the house, “Not too bad for a lonely girl, eh?”
It purred and rubbed its face on my leg, then licked my boots. I stood and walked to the small kitchen, “You must be hungry,” I said as I took some cereal and poured it into a bowl along with another bowl full of water. I put the bowls on the floor and watched as it tried to eat the cereal with its sharp baby teeth loudly crunching away. Then it sniffled the water and licked it, gurgling in the water, like a little baby playing in the bath.
I giggled, “Okay, take it easy,” and went to sit on the sofa, “On.” I instructed the TV, and the screen flashed from the TV ball showing the videos I always watched, my parents’ speeches. I waved to play the video, “If you only believed,” Dad started, “we’re here to confirm that aliens are much more complex creatures and through our res
earch we found out most of what we thought about them was wrong. And we’re here to say that we have proof, evidence that will change your mind.” My dad had black hair, like mine. Mom stood next to him, with her blond hair pinned back. They both wore green suits, and stood with buoyancy in front of the large crowd. Thousands of people attended their lectures.
I sensed something snagging my boots and looked down to see the alien trying to rip my boot with its teeth. “Hey,” I called, “Bad alien. Bad alien,” and pointed at it.
It purred and walked to the screen, trying to wave it off with its hands. “Those are my parents,” I explained, “and they almost discovered something about your kind. It was going to change the relationship between humans and alien kind.”
The alien turned to stare at me. “They’re dead. Well, it doesn’t matter,” I said. “I can’t believe I’m talking to you as if you are a human being. I officially have lost it.”
It turned around in circles and lay on the floor, cuddling itself. “Are you sleepy?” I asked too late. It had shut its eyelids and fell asleep on the floor at my feet. I sighed; “I guess you were,” and then I watched my parents’ speech for the hundredth time, like it was making them real again. Almost touchable, but they were dead and long gone. And I couldn’t do anything to bring them back to me.
In the morning, I suited up for work, which consisted of hard yellow metal armor and a helmet. It was hard to walk with the suit, but I managed to prepare two bowls to feed the alien. I brewed some coffee and sipped it. The alien ate and then ran to munch my boots again, like it was its favourite chew toy, well, only chew toy.
“I really need to buy you real food,” I said. “For now, stay put. I have to go to work.”
It craned its head up to look at me with its pleading puppy dog eyes. “Please don’t do that, because it won’t work. Not with me, okay? You need to stay home.” I said, “Before I get back, I’ll get you some dog food. Fine with you?”
It purred.
