Alien Apocalypse: The Complete Series (Parts I-IV)

by JC Andrijeski

  Whatever the reason, no one waited for them when they touched down. No one came out to greet them, either. They’d traversed the length of the connecting tunnel between the ship and the enclosed hangar before the reality of that silence truly sank in for Jet herself. Realizing no one would be popping out with a microphone after all, she felt herself relax, exhaling a full breath when the corridor opened up on a giant room filled with working Nirreth, none of whom spared them much more than a glance.

  The hangar itself looked like a ghost city of sorts, like one of those bombed-out cities that stood empty on Earth following the war between the humans and the Nirreth.

  Dozens of Nirreth still walked the hangar’s floors, of course...and, more commonly, drove small vehicles from one end of the cavernous space to the other...but so few compared to the size of the domed enclosure that they only served to emphasize the emptiness of the rest. Jet figured that the hangar had been built to house about a hundred times more ships and people than it currently did. Perhaps a thousand times as many.

  She didn’t have long to look at it though, or contemplate what the hangar might have been like back in the day. Within minutes, she and Laksri were ushered into an elevator that promptly sank them down into the lower levels of the structure. According to Laksri, most of the Royal Guard had already beaten them to those lower floors, since they’d left the ship an hour earlier to scout the hangars and the rest of the route as a security precaution, including Jet and Laksri’s assigned residence for the duration of their stay.

  As Jet walked into that glass elevator, she also got her first glimpse of Anaze since he’d zapped Laksri in their room on Earth.

  She couldn’t help but stare at him, in those few seconds while the massive glass elevator sank down to the ground floor. Five guards surrounded him, but apparently they didn’t see him as much of a risk, since none of them physically restrained him apart from the chains. From Anaze’s expression, he was obviously under the influence of venom from the Nirreth who had been watching over him for the duration of the trip. She could tell from his face that he hadn’t been venom-free for at least a few days...probably longer.

  It struck her to wonder how he managed to keep his thoughts and memories from them while he was under the influence. She knew there had to be some way, or Richter, Laksri and herself would have been arrested, months ago, but she couldn’t for the life of her understand how he did it. She could block some of her more private thoughts under the effects of a few stings...even from Laksri, with whom she shared more than just venom...but no way could she have maintained that for days upon days of continuous stinging.

  From his expression, Anaze didn’t have a clue where he was. He appeared only about half-conscious and so sick with venom that he likely couldn’t take a breath without asking permission of his Nirreth guards.

  She would have to ask Laksri how he managed it. Laksri had already hinted that Anaze had specialized training of some kind, but she wanted specifics. More to the point, she wanted to know if she could be trained to hide things inside the venom, too.

  As she continued to stare at Anaze, it struck Jet that he didn’t look dissimilar to how she’d first seen him in the Green Zone on Earth.

  That time, Richter had been the one to order his Nirreth guards to abuse him.

  Looking back on it now, Jet knew he’d done it to convince Jet and whoever else that Anaze was just some skag he’d picked up on a random culling, not anyone he knew, much less his own son. She wondered now if Richter had more than one objective in mind with that, however. Maybe he’d also wanted to know if his son might be hiding anything from him, as well as the true nature of his relationship to Laksri. Knowing Richter, he would think nothing of having his pet Nirreth sting the crap out of his own son to find intel. Knowing Richter, he wouldn’t think twice, not if he thought it would work.

  The thought sickened her a little.

  Maybe more than a little.

  Back then, Anaze had looked almost as bad as he did now. He’d been surrounded by guards then, too, doped on venom, covered in bruises. He looked thinner to her this time, but more time had passed, too. He looked thinner now than he had even after months of living with her in the skag pits, toughing it out with the half-poisoned food they scrounged from the ground and water, using bows and swords, traps, snares and fishing lines.

  That struck her again too, looking at him.

  Anaze had put himself through that hell in the skag pits for two years. He’d lived outside the comforts of both Richter’s people and the Green Zones, all so he could try and recruit her to his and Laksri’s cause.

  Truthfully, he couldn’t have told her everything, not at first.

  Jet could admit that to herself now, even if his deception still bothered her.

  Back then, Jet had been too steeped in the ignorance of the skags. To her, the Nirreth were boogeymen, vicious animals that would try to eat her, or would cut her up and experiment on her if they caught her in one of their nets.

  Back in the Green Zone, that night when Anaze talked to her out by that fountain, Anaze told her that he’d had his doubts that he could convince Jet of the truth of things on his own. Even to try would give her too many reasons to suspect him, he said, and even more reasons for Jet to distrust anything he told her. The simplest and most effective solution also took the longest. They needed her to spend time with the Nirreth first-hand. They needed her to come to her own conclusions about the situation in the Green Zones, and the true state of the relationship between humans and the Nirreth. Laksri told her that Anaze had been confident Jet would come around, once she had some real exposure to Nirreth society.

  Anaze hadn’t expected her to take one as a lover, however.

  He’d known it might be necessary to pretend some kind of arrangement with Laksri, but he’d never expected her to do it for real.

  Jet continued to study Anaze’s face, trying to wrap her head around all of the information Laksri had given her, mixed with the things Anaze told her himself.

  Even so, she couldn’t ignore Anaze himself.

  She couldn’t ignore how thin he looked, how malnourished and pale he appeared to her eyes. Nor could she help noticing the fact that he’d lost muscle, not only fat, along with every spare bit of weight he’d managed to accumulate during their stay in the Royals’ compound. Given that the Guard had been holding him in custody for weeks, those things probably shouldn’t have surprised her, but seeing him relatively up-close still managed to shock her, and bring her heart to her throat once she really took in his appearance.

  She really didn’t want to think about what they’d likely been doing to him in those pens. She’d caught glimpses of that from Laksri too, who blocked most of it from her view even as he assured her that Anaze had trained for this.

  He was military, Laksri reminded her. Not a skag. Not even a skag like her.

  Anaze wasn’t like other humans, Laksri told her. He’d been trained. Not like she’d been trained...but really trained.

  Jet knew what Laksri had been trying to tell her.

  Even so, she didn’t find his assurances all that comforting.

  Her unease worsened when she remembered he’d be running in the Retribution in less than forty-eight hours. The way he looked now, he wouldn’t last ten minutes in a Rings match, much less the significantly more brutal and more real-life version they called Retribution.

  That thought finally got her to turn her eyes away.

  Swallowing, she fought her reaction off her face.

  She looked out the window on the other side of the elevators to distract herself, getting her first glimpse of the surface of the planet of Astet. She couldn’t see much. She glimpsed just enough to recognize the curve of sky past a row of jutting buildings lurking around the main hangar. Unlike the sky of the Green Zones on Earth, no blue colored the low dome arching overhead. Instead, a heavy, dark, green-gray swath of color met her eyes. That same sky turned to a dark red, almost the color of blood, nearer t
o the horizon. The sky and its clouds looked more like an oil painting than anything she’d seen on Earth.

  That brief view hit her like a smack to the face.

  It leached the last of the venom from her system, that stark reminder that she no longer stood on her home planet of Earth.

  Still trying to glimpse details through the rounded glass portal, Jet realized something else. She felt light-headed, almost dizzy. It grew bad enough to make her claustrophobic, bad enough that she felt like she might be smothering. Her hand flattened against the curved glass, the fingers of her other hand clutching her shirt. Her vision started to gray.

  Laksri appeared beside her.

  “Chew this,” he ordered, handing her something.

  Jet didn’t hesitate.

  Maybe enough of his venom remained in her system from the night before, but she popped that thing right into her mouth and began to chew vigorously.

  Only then, as his fingers caressed the back of her neck, did she feel the intention behind his command. He’d given her medicine. Medicine that would make it easier for her to breathe. Crunching the capsule with her back molars, she tried to ignore how bitter it tasted. It got easier when she felt her lungs opening after a few seconds of chewing. Looking up at him once she’d regained her composure, she asked him a silent question with her eyes.

  He answered it, his hand still resting on her neck.

  “Swallow it,” he said. “It’s okay, Jet. It’s helping you adjust to the change in atmosphere.”

  She fought her way through a few more chews, then swallowed with an effort, her throat dry. “How?” she managed. “How does it help?”

  He gave a faint shrug. “It strengthens your blood. Your system would likely adjust on its own, but it takes weeks...even months. Not all humans can do it. Most don’t die, but some fall into comas, or simply lose all ability to function.” He looked into her face, worry reflected in his dark eyes. “It’s like moving to a place of extremely high altitude on Earth,” he said. “...Only significantly worse, and without any easing into the difference. I am told that what humans experience is like this, however. The symptoms parallel a form of altitude sickness.”

  Jet nodded, feeling some of the tension leave her limbs as the drug continued to spread through her blood. Her eyes returned to that view out the elevator window, even as Laksri resumed speaking in English.

  “...The pill multiplies red blood cells. Quickly,” he added. “It also aids in absorption and impacts your metabolism. You will still tire much more easily here,” he cautioned, squeezing her arm gently. “Do not push yourself too much, Jet. We will make sure you spend time in oxygen-enriched rooms as often as possible.”

  Jet glanced at Anaze, in spite of herself.

  “No,” he said, again answering her unspoken question. “They won’t compensate for this in the Retribution. They’ve given him the drug I just gave you, but no more.”

  Jet nodded, but felt her throat close.

  She still had no idea how to feel about Anaze, but the information Laksri had given her confused things for her all over again. Feeling the protectiveness through Laksri’s fingers didn’t ease her confusion any; if anything, it made it more pronounced. She still didn’t know exactly how to feel about Laksri, either.

  At the thought, she glanced up guiltily, wondering if her inability to understand her own feelings about him would offend the Nirreth. When she met his gaze, however, Laksri’s dark eyes remained cautious, even as a faint smile hovered at his lips. Before she could react to either, he kissed the side of her face, nuzzling it briefly with his.

  “I am patient, Jet,” he murmured. “Very patient.”

  She gave an involuntary laugh. “No, you’re not.”

  He squeezed her tighter, pulling her against him. “Not in all things,” he conceded, sending her a flicker of his own humor. “...But I will wait for this.”

  She didn’t answer, but smiled in spite of herself. Shaking her head, she nudged him with an elbow, lowering her voice to a murmur.

  “And just what will you be waiting for, exactly?” she said.

  She’d meant it mostly as a joke, but he answered her seriously, his mouth once more near to her ear.

  “For you to love me,” he said, soft. “For you to trust me...and to feel the same about me as I do about you.”

  Her cheeks warmed at his words.

  She only nodded though, not looking up.

  Her eyes drifted back to Anaze even as the elevator hit the bottom level and the thick, glass doors began to open. Walking out with Laksri’s tail wrapped around her, Jet found herself unable to look away from Anaze’s face when she saw him staring at the two of them.

  An expression twisted his face, frightening her briefly, if only because he’d looked like such a zombie just seconds before. The fact that seeing her and Laksri together could elicit that kind of response––right now, given his fugue state––worried her. She felt a similar flicker of worry off Laksri after his gaze followed hers.

  She sensed more specific worries off Laksri, too, dulled by the sense that he’d started blocking her again, keeping things from her that he didn’t wish her to see. Feeling her notice, Laksri glanced down, his dark eyes worried.

  “It’s nothing,” he said in her ear. “I cannot tell you here. They will scan you soon.”

  Feeling her tense, he gripped her tighter in his hands.

  “Do not worry, Jet,” he murmured. “Trust me. Try, anyway.”

  She did worry though, and she didn’t fully trust him. Not yet, and not only because he’d just seemingly contradicted himself. The fact that it might be Anaze’s life in the balance this time, instead of her own, didn’t reassure her in the slightest.

  “Is he here?” she murmured. “Richter. Has he landed yet?”

  Laksri nodded, flicking his tail in a sharper arc. “Yes,” he said. “He arrived yesterday, Jet. The equivalent of 36 of your hours prior to now.”

  She nodded, but felt the tautness in her muscles worsen.

  “What about Trazen?” she said.

  That time, the gap before he answered stretched longer.

  “Him, too,” Laksri said, his tail lashing again briefly behind him. “The day before Richter.”

  Jet nodded again, still not looking away from that black and green-streaked sky.

  “It’s so dark,” she murmured, only half-aware she’d spoken aloud.

  Laksri answered her anyway.

  “It is like your moon,” he said, following her gaze with his nearly-black eyes. “There is a dark side, Jet. We are on it. It is the side that was least damaged by the solar flare that destroyed most of our civilization.”

  Jet nodded, but somehow, the image made her flinch.

  Without thinking about why, she found herself wondering which of them would actually leave this world.

  That is, assuming any of them managed to leave here alive.

  THE RETRIBUTION

  Jet sat in a sound-proofed, virtually-equipped box, high atop the Rings stands.

  From that eagle’s-eye view, surrounded by virtually-enhanced monitors, she overlooked a stadium shaped not unlike the one where she’d been forced to run Rings matches back home.

  It was an odd feeling.

  She’d never been in the audience before...not for a live match.

  She’d always been the one down on the course.

  Laksri left her there, about a half-hour earlier according to Jet’s internal clock. She didn’t know where he’d gone; they hadn’t been in a position to talk freely for almost two days, although he’d managed to communicate a number of things via the venom. Jet understood why he hadn’t communicated more, even when they’d been alone together. She knew they were being watched. Laksri told her that they’d been under active surveillance, likely by multiple parties, from the moment they’d landed on Astet.

  Further, as the wronged party in the Retribution itself, Laksri had an obligation to be involved directly in the planning for the run, w
hich meant a fair bit of work behind the scenes, specifically with Trazen and the pullers working under him. Collectively, Laksri had spent more time with Anaze, the Royal Guard and Trazen than he had with her.

  Jet couldn’t help wondering how much of that had been deliberate.

  She distinctly got the feeling, through the venom and otherwise, that Laksri didn’t want her knowing much about the specifics of what they had planned, either for the Retribution event or apart from that. She felt protectiveness behind his unwillingness to include her, not overt deceit, but that managed to placate her only marginally.

  Well, really, it didn’t help much at all, not if she were being honest with herself.

  The odd feeling of being a spectator didn’t decrease with time.

  Jet felt herself growing more and more uneasy as she familiarized herself with the specific elements of the Retribution arena, remembering them from recordings with a kind of controlled panic. It occurred to her that she was looking at the actual, physical layout of the very first arena model that she’d ever studied. Since it constituted the only one Laksri himself had ever known, personally at least, she’d started there, working with him on the various components as soon as he’d started stinging her to help her remember things during practice runs.

  Thinking about those early sessions, Jet remembered the rest of what Laksri showed her about the Retribution, too. His experiences had been brutal, far worse than anything Jet had seen in any of the televised events since. As her mind turned over details, she felt the pain in her gut worsen. That was another trick of the venom––it could blur the lines between memory and communication, in that you often felt the other person’s memories as your own.

  Jet still had no idea what they had planned for Anaze.

  She knew it would be bad.

  She also knew, if she hadn’t been who she was, consort to the First Son of the Royals, she might be down there herself right now, behind one of those trap doors. Part of Anaze’s run might have been to watch her get gang-raped by giant space-lizards, or maybe gutted by a handful of the rowdier elements of the Nirreth Royal Guard.