Zolyn was definitely caught off guard now. Her grip on him started to loosen and slip because she had to reroute parts of her anatomy to fight off this blue light.
Shaun felt the restraint on his hand lighten and when he was able to curl his fingers into a fist he knew that it was his chance to break free.
He yanked that arm towards his chest with everything in him. Pulled, jabbed, and began wrenching his limb out of Zolyn’s grasp. It was working. Within a minute he had an entire arm free.
Yes...
Then one leg. And the other. Instead of being spun around in the air, he was in control of his direction now. Like a little kid pulling out of a relative’s grasp, Shaun managed to leap free from Zolyn and he shot through the air.
Free at last!
He moved at least fifty feet and then turned around to see what was happening.
It was a fight like some deranged screen saver. The two colors — Zolyn’s glistening black and the newcomer’s brilliant blue — were tangling into each other, giving off great screeching sounds like nails on a chalk board. Shaun grimaced and covered his ears against the barrage of squeals and clashes.
Are they fighting over me? he wondered. Was it a right of status to devour a piece of the Vestige? If so, Shaun needed to get out of here as quickly as possible.
Yet as he glanced down at the blue flashing lights of the police who had arrived down below he knew that even with weapons, these men and women were no match for something like Zolyn. Aliens were completely new creatures that demanded to be analyzed before a real fight could take place.
Maybe if he turned in all the data that his visor had collected he could give the armed forces a leg up on the battle. Maybe it would give them a chance to regroup and actually win a fight against these invaders.
Yes, that sounded good. It also gave him a real reason to run away without being accused by the activist groups of being a coward. I can’t win either way...
He turned, ready to shoot off to the police headquarters, when a great shattering sound followed by a deep boom shook the air. The shockwave blew past Shaun like a hurricane and he faltered, dipping a bit. Once he righted himself he was able to see that the blue-illuminated alien had prevailed and the dark spheres of Zolyn’s being plummeted through the air like marbles. No more energy connected them together. She was extinguished — though if this was permanent or merely temporary was not obvious.
The stream of blue light twitched and aimed at Shaun.
“Oh crap...”
He had to move!
Flying in the opposite direction he gave a burst of super speed. The buildings around him blurred horizontally and all sound took on a warped, reverberating nature. This was his only hope to get away.
But it was not going to happen the way he planned. Looking over his shoulder, Shaun cursed as he saw that this blue alien also possessed super speed, and like Zolyn it was faster than he was.
“Leave me...alone!”
He gave his last bit of energy to speed a little farther forward, but the alien matched him and came around his front. Despite the blue light, this alien was scarier to Shaun than an all-black version. It was easy in the light to see the creature thinking and calculating its movements based on how Shaun acted.
There was something else that terrified him, and even as he tried to stop himself, there was nothing he could do.
The blue alien was stretching out in front of him like a net. This net included all of the pinpoints making up its body, but as Shaun thought it was going to wrap around him like Zolyn had and squeeze him to a pulp, this alien continued to stretch until all of its balls of light formed a frame around a blinding white square of brilliance.
Shaun tried desperately to stop himself, but he was going to crash. His hands flew up to press against the light.
But the light was not solid. It was an opening into a space of empty air that was not the outside world.
A portal.
Shaun cried out as the portal sucked him in and he tumbled end over end, devoured by the blinding light.
15
Xara
Shaun’s eyes were squeezed shut against all the wind and drizzle that pelted him, but this proved to be a mistake as he fell through what he could only describe as a portal. With his eyes closed, he couldn’t see how far he was falling. Before he knew it he slammed feet-first into something solid. The momentum was so great, and the stop so unexpected, that his knees buckled and he tumbled forward. All the breath was knocked from his chest and his hands shot out to catch himself.
Just short of belly-flopping onto the flat surface, Shaun blinked for a few seconds as he steadied himself and tried to return to his feet. As he did so, his hands pressed flat against the floor and he realized that the surface was smooth like polished marble. He looked around. The dark atmosphere that surrounded him started to lighten and the details of his new prison became clear.
He was contained in a square room that was very tall. Up where he had just fallen from was the faint outline of a door — or hatch — of some kind that was lit like a glowing LCD screen. The light pulsed every few seconds, and it was this light that was filling the chamber. Yet Shaun’s main takeaway from what he saw was that the opening where he entered the room was now filled completely by the glowing forcefield. He couldn’t even see through the material to the outside world.
The only other distinguishing features of the space were that the walls were all white, which proved harsh on his eyes the brighter the light became, and aside from that, the only other items in the room were two long bench-like structures.
Simplicity, thought Shaun with a grit of his teeth. An easy way to disorient him and keep him from figuring out where he was.
Even his Fallout visor couldn’t tell him anything that he wasn’t already observing with his own eyes. He ended up adjusting the glass so that the tint was greater, giving his vision a break.
“I can’t stay here,” he muttered to himself. Now wasn’t the time to give up the fight.
With no other discernible door in the room, Shaun levitated up to the glowing barrier in the ceiling and started pounding on it with his fist. He half hoped that the thing was made of glass, but whatever the material, it didn’t budge no matter how hard he battered it.
“Hey!” he yelled out of sheer desperation and slammed his fist against the barrier again. “Can anyone hear me? Hey! You can’t just leave me in here!”
He knew it was an empty threat seeing as there was no ounce of power he possessed in the blank room, but it was the only thing he could think of to yell. It was his only card to play — at least verbally.
There were still a few more tricks up his sleeve.
Lowering himself a few inches, he positioned his hands so that they were aimed directly up at the forcefield blocking his exit. With a flex of his fingers he started charging up a rolling ball of electricity.
If they won’t let me out, I’ll do as much damage as I can to their little space prison.
The ball of energy continued to grow and grow until it was roughly the size of a small child. The purple and white light emanating from it glowed against the blank walls, and the energy crackled like a live wire. Shaun was going to give it everything he had.
“I’m warning you right now,” he said. “If anyone’s listening, I’m going to blow the lid off this place if you don’t let me out right now!”
Again, the threat was laughable, but what could he do? If the walls and doors wouldn’t break with his hands then he would try to damage them with his powers.
He was just about to release the ball of energy against the ceiling when a voice spoke behind him.
“Stop that right now.”
He hadn’t expected a voice to come from behind him, especially when there was no door or window that would allow for entry. In his shock he released the ball of energy and it flew at the ceiling. Instead of doing damage, however, the energy was completely absorbed by the ceiling. The purple, sparking ball seemed to be
welcomed by the perfectly flat barrier, melting until it became one with the material.
It was assimilated. Absorbed.
With that over with, the silence of the room replaced the memory of crackling energy.
Shaun spun around in the air and his eyes widened as he saw an alien figure that appeared to be simulated in the same way that Zolyn had been.
This creature, structure the same as Zolyn, had also assembled herself into the shape of a woman, except this woman wasn’t as tall or as terrifying as the former one had been. She was still an enemy, though, and Shaun couldn’t let his guard down — not even for a minute.
He remained in the air and focused his scowl at the woman.
“Let me out of here right now,” he demanded.
This demand was received about as well as he expected it to be. The woman, who still looked like she was made up of pieces of polished obsidian, chuckled.
“You and I both know that’s not going to happen,” she said. “How about you come down from there and talk with me. I promise no harm will come to you while you’re in this room.”
“How do I know I can trust you?” asked Shaun.
The woman smiled slightly, then her glassy complexion began to ripple and morph until it looked like she was being fleshed out by some sort of editing software. Her outfit remained black, but in the areas where human flesh would go, cream-colored skin blossomed. Her features filled themselves in and finally completed with flowing blood-red hair. She almost looked like a real human being.
“There,” she said. “Is that better? To answer your question, you can’t know that you can trust me. But, do you have any other choice? You are here because I am protecting you. If I really wanted to harm or kill you, now would be the perfect time to do so. There is nothing in my way.” She started to walk towards where he hovered. “What I really want, however, is to talk with you. So, if you’ll come down from there...”
Shaun groaned. The woman was right. He had no other options. Slowly, cautiously, he lowered himself back down to the floor, retaining his firm expression. He was going to hold onto whatever bit of menace he could muster as he entertained this alien woman — whoever she was.
With his feet on the floor, the woman appraised him with a pleased expression.
“That’s better, isn’t it? Now we can talk like two civilized beings.”
“I’ll be the judge of how civilized you are,” Shaun snapped back. “I don’t think civilized beings crash onto planets to trap others in strange prison cells like this one.”
“They do if it’s the only way to talk without fear of one of us being killed. Now, if you wouldn’t mind, I think we’ll be more comfortable over here.” She motioned for the benches and took a seat on one. Shaun took the other and continued their conversation.
“If we’re going to talk, I want to know who you are, where you come from, and what you’re doing here.”
The woman laughed.
“All easy questions, hm? You start off with the heavy hitters.”
“I like to be aware.”
“Oh, don’t worry. You’ll get answers to your satisfaction. But, it won’t be quick. I imagine that today has been full of firsts for you and your kind. It’s not every day that beings from outside the solar system crash-land in the middle of a metropolitan harbor.”
Shaun nodded. “You’re right on that count.”
“Alright. Where to begin?” The alien woman brushed her hair out of her face (it continued to flow as if it were in a gentle breeze, though there was no such air movement in the room) and instead of looking to the side as a human being would when recalling a memory, she locked eyes with Shaun, never blinking. “To start, my name is Xara. As you can tell, I’m not from your planet, yet I know a lot more about it than you probably realize. I’m a Xantherian, the same as Zolyn. I’ve been studying it for a long time, as have the rest of my dwindling people.” She paused methodically in the way that a computer simulation that has analyzed human conversational patterns might stop to allow the processing of information and also the chance for the other party to say something.
Shaun took the chance.
“Xara,” he said, trying out the name on his tongue. It felt foreign and exotic, which only made sense. “So you’ve been watching us. What for? Are you some kind of scientist or nature enthusiast?”
“Some of us are,” Xara answered with a knowing look in her eye. “Others, as you saw a few minutes ago, are not.”
Shaun had enough vagueness. He wanted direct answers, and he wanted them right now.
“How many of there are you?”
“On the ship?” Xara replied. “Zolyn thought it was just her. But, I snuck on board. I wasn’t going to let her go off and obliterate another population. There are others, but they are not suitable for interstellar travel. Many are too weak. That is the curse that we are up against. Bodies that are slowly dying and unable to withstand the forces that they once did. Zolyn and I are the lucky ones. Two of the very few who are lucky.”
“What are you doing here, besides locking me up to protect me from your game-hunting friends?”
“We’re not game hunters,” Xara said with a snap. “Not in the way you humans do it. You’re referring to Zolyn. She’s not like me, naturally. She doesn’t believe in observing and conserving. She wants to harvest energy at any cost, no matter the cost. We’re dying, you see. There aren’t many of us left, hence why we have come here now. We need energy to survive, and that energy must come from an outside source. If we are left on our own, we will surely die once our energy is depleted.”
“So Zolyn has come to harvest us…” Shaun couldn’t help but think of every alien-themed movie he had ever seen. If they weren’t coming to eat, enslave, or exterminate humanity, then they were harmless friends who just wanted to go home. In this case, they were here to enslave and consume. “This Zolyn woman — if you even have gender — she mentioned the Vestige. Is she only here to harvest the pieces of my medallion? The rest of humanity has nothing to do with all that.”
“You’re only partially right,” Xara answered. “Zolyn is here for the Vestige, but she knows that there are multiple humans with the ability to channel the medallion’s energy. Even in its shattered form, you channelers are like rechargeable batteries to us. You absorb the energy from the Vestige, and then we take that energy from you. Think of yourselves as energy banks. A normal human being does not possess a great amount of energy — only a limited amount. But, with a collection of channelers, what you call Aberrants, Zolyn will be able to live for a long time and bring our species back to the forefront.”
Shaun frowned. “And how do you know all of this? Has your monitoring given you all of that information?”
“Correct. I’ve been watching you for a long time. There has, of course, been a lapse in our monitoring. But, we know a lot about you specifically, and your family. They have a…unique reaction when they come in contact with the Vestige. It is a shard of starlight, you see. Not many people could survive channeling its power like you and your father have. That is what makes you unique and sets you apart from the rest of your kind. The same can be said for Austin Spencer. Zolyn already got to him. She needs him on board with her plan, and I doubt that he will fight her. He has no hope to win. That left her free to come for you and your father. I was not going to let her take you two away so easily.”
“Wait — you knew about my father?” he said, blinking a few times.
“Yes,” said Xara. “He was one of the first of your kind to exhibit the powerful effects of possessing and touching the Vestige. We had initially hoped that by planting the original shard here that its effects would transfer to the various other types of stone on Earth. It is quite a plentiful substance and would have been a great windfall for my people. But, that didn’t end up being the case. The Vestige, as you call it, did not transfer its properties to other similar types of rock. But it wasn’t a total waste. You and your father are proof of that. The Vestige’s power
multiplied in ways we did not anticipate and we still managed a harvest…of sorts.” She smiled. “I’ve saved you from an untimely fate. I hope that your father is able to fend off Zolyn until I can get to him as well.”
Shaun’s shoulders slumped and he looked down at the floor.
“That won’t be possible,” he said in a defeated tone. “My father has been dead for years now.”
The answer came as a shock to Xara. For the first time her face appeared to show an expression other than placid satisfaction. It was at first shock, then sorrow.
“What?” she said, her voice becoming a bit more human rather than its default mechanical tone. “How is that possible? We didn’t see anything about this in our records.”
“That must have happened during your lapse,” said Shaun. “He died in a plane crash a few years ago. It came as a shock to all of us, so I can understand that it would be the same for you. He was pretty well known.” He studied Xara as she seemed to internalize the information that he verified to her. It was like watching a child who only just realized that all people die someday. He actually felt bad for the alien creature. “He didn’t die with the Vestige, though,” he added, trying to soften the blow. “He left it for me. If it’s the shards that Zolyn wants, then I’ve got them. All she has to do is take them and leave.”
“But, she won’t leave now,” Xara replied. “And she won’t just take just the shards with her if she does. She will also take any of the Aberrants who have used the shards and siphon the energy from their bodies once the initial Vestige is used up completely.”
“Used up?” Shaun said, his brows screwing together. “You mean that she’s not going to be satisfied with only the shards?”
“Oh, of course not,” Xara answered with a shake of her head. Her red hair floated in front of her face each time. “The Vestige is just a small collection of energy. Think of it like a seed. You see, we were hoping that if the tiny piece that makes up what you refer to as the medallion was able to replicate itself, then we would have plenty of energy to harvest. It would have been done without any loss of life as far as your people are concerned. But, as we’ve discovered, the test didn’t work the way we had hoped. And the Vestige was the only bit of our energy sources from Xantheria that we were willing to part with.”
The Aberrant Series (Book 4): Super Invasion Page 9
