by Angie Arland
“The landing struts were deployed too early...sir.” Reece lowered his head over the piloting HUD and flicked the glowing red sensor. “Looks like we sheared off the port landing strut. Other than that, the ship is secure sir and intact...mostly.” Reece grinned and, with a trembling hand, wiped sweat from his brow.
“Mister Finnegan, report,” Aiden called over the comms to the engine room.
“Considering I never taught my grandson how to land on a tumbling chunk of rock, I’d say he did pretty bloody good.” The old man laughed over the comms. “I’m gonna have a few bruises though. Maybe a few on my as—”
Aiden cut the comms before Mister Finnegan finished. Releasing the restraints, he rose from the co-pilot’s seat. “Good job, rook. Just don’t cock it up next time.”
“Thank you, sir. I think.” Reece laughed, relief written all over his freckled-face.
Aiden entered the Command Hub just as Weps Karson was unhooking Spero’s harness. As Karson leaned in to release the harness, Spero licked his face, much to the man’s chagrin. Aiden chuckled.
He sat in the command chair and accessed the console on the arm before entering his code. They had to act fast before the cruiser closed in on their position. “Harper, report.”
The SigsOp jumped in his seat. “It’s still on intercept, sir, and will be within firing range in approximately seven ems.”
“Ryder, grab the EVAs from the hold. Doctor McNeill, go help her.”
The doctor scowled but remained silent.
Ryder unhooked her harness from the chair and hurried to the aft section of the ship. McNeill kept his eyes on Spero as he left the hub, grumbling about unfinished work in his lab. Spero’s hackles rose as McNeill glanced in her direction before he disappeared into the corridor.
“I haven’t forgotten about you, girl.” Aiden eyed his golden retriever with a furrowed frown. Maybe this would be her last mission after all. Doctor McNeill had served with his crew for three cycles, and she’d never growled at him before. It was a decision he may not get to make.
“Harper, estimated time to drop ship-wide temperature to match the asteroid surface?” Aiden asked.
“Taking the readings now, sir.”
“Now? Why didn’t you do it when I gave the order? Could have saved us time.”
“Sorry, sir. Temperature of the surface is minus one-hundred-seventy-five point three-six which will take...calculating now...” Harper tapped out the equation on the console. “Approximately twelve point two-three ems, sir.”
Aiden sighed. “Is it possible to reduce the time by opening the hatches?” He punched in Harper’s data on his chair’s arm console.
“Crunching the numbers...confirmed. Opening the outer hatches of both the cargo holds and lander bay will drop the ship’s temperature in seven ems, twenty-nine seconds.”
“I’m not prepared to lose the lander crawler.”
“I’ll recalculate, sir.” Harper took a moment to punch the HUD controls. “Seven ems, forty-two seconds.”
“Close enough. Do it.”
Nine
Spero dropped a ball at Aiden’s feet, sat back and panted.
“Not now, girl. Sorry.” He eased her doggy helmet over her head and secured the locking mechanism into the neck of her K-9 EVA suit.
Aiden secured his own helmet and activated the suit comms.
“Mister Finnegan, are you suited up?”
“Just making a few more tweaks to the engine first.”
“We don’t have the luxury of time, old man, unless you prefer freezing to death. Put your damn suit on, that’s an order.” Aiden didn’t wait for a response. “Ryder, tell me if they send out any communications. Not that there’s a goddamned thing we can do about it.”
“So far, nothing, sir.” Ryder rose from her chair and turned to Harper. “Here. Let me help.” She secured Harper’s gloves into the locking mechanism on each wrist. Harper did the same for Ryder before they returned to their stations.
Aiden leaned on the back of the command chair. “Launch the torpedo.”
Karson nodded and jabbed the control with his gloved hand. “It’s away, sir.”
“Track it.”
Harper checked his HUD. “Point six AU and counting.”
“When it’s at one AU, inform Ryder to activate the beacon. That should give us a little breathing space.” If it wasn’t, they’d know soon enough, and the last thing they would see was the inside of this crater. Aiden couldn’t help thinking of it as a tomb of sorts.
“Mister Finnegan, are you suited up?” Aiden waited for his reply.
Finnegan grunted and groaned into the comms, giving them all an unusual commentary. “Okay...done. But I’m staying in the rear compartment to work on this blasted engine.”
Aiden grimaced. “You’ll be stuck there for the duration.”
“Understood.” Finnegan sounded exhausted.
Harper glanced at his fellow crewmember. “Ryder, now,” the SigsOp instructed.
“Beacon activated.”
Aiden chewed the inside of his lip. “Reece, be ready to fire up the thrusters.”
“Aye, sir.”
Aiden punched a sequence of commands into his console and activated ship-wide comms. “Attention all crew, stand clear, closing blast doors.” The overhead lights flashed red and one by one, the heavy doors slid shut with a grinding thud, sealing off each section of the ship. “Secure your suits, monitor O2 levels, and maintain internal comms only. Sound off. Are we a go for next stage?”
Aiden received feedback from every crewmember, one after the other, except Doctor McNeill.
“Doc?”
“Sir, he put on a suit,” Ryder said. “Then grumbled something about staying in the lab to continue his work after taking a suit to Mister Finnegan.”
“Doc’s not responding to comms, but if he’s suited up, we’re not waiting. Commencing second stage of Blackbody Radiation Mode.” Aiden suppressed a sigh, not wanting to betray his nervousness. He disabled each of the ship’s systems from the console on his chair. “Life support, environmental controls, propulsion, communications, main computer...all offline.”
The systems powered down until they were in the dark with only their helmet lights illuminating their worried faces.
“Opening outer cargo bay doors.”
The scout ship shuddered underfoot as pressure decompressed within the two compartments now open to space.
“We’ll be cutting it fine.”
“What happens now, sir?” Ryder asked.
“Now, we wait.”
Aiden steadied his breath to conserve oxygen. He conceded, this mission was a failure. Any unsecured cargo would have been sucked out of the cargo bays or frozen solid to the deck plating, and Terudithan soldiers were on their proverbial asses. He doubted their situation could get any worse and he’d just put his entire crew in a vulnerable position by going dark. But what other choice was there? With no access to major critical systems, he hoped like hell the ploy worked because they were out of options.
He had to protect his crew and get them safely back to the fleet. That was his duty, even if it meant hiding in a hole on a big tumbling rock out of sheer desperation.
The terudithans were known for their brutality and Aiden wasn’t about to subject his crew to endless hours of torture. He shuddered inside his suit; his wife and son had been lost to the alien scum. The mere thought of torture...it kept him awake at night and fighting by day. Fighting for loved ones lost and to protect those still living. Fighting for the last threads of humanity. Fighting to kill every last terudithan piece of shit scum. Once the fleet found the alien homeworld, he’d be there in a front row seat pushing the nuke button. He couldn’t wait to wipe the squids from the galaxy once and for all.
Ten
They emerged into a long corridor. It took a few seconds for Tayla’s eyes to adjust to the dim lighting.
Two Terudithan aliens appeared from an opening on the opposite side of the corridor. T
hey were engrossed in a floating, transparent tablet-looking device and, thankfully, didn’t look up. Tayla pulled Claire into a nearby alcove until the aliens walked out of sight.
“How do we get out of the building?” Tayla whispered to Claire, though her breath was nearly caught in her throat, and her heart pumped furiously.
“It’s too dangerous...I think we should go back into—” Claire’s eyes widened in fear as she looked past Tayla’s shoulder.
Tayla spun to find two uniformed alien soldiers with their weapons aimed at them.
“We’re not going back into that cell. Please let us go!” Claire’s voice shook with anger.
Tayla had never seen this side of her sister—the fighting side. If Claire wanted to resist, Tayla would join her. She gripped Claire’s arm, ready to run...if her legs would allow it. “Do we run, or do we fight?”
The tall darker alien of the pair wore an olive-green military-style uniform, and it gestured down the corridor with its weapon.
“Either we go with them, or we die, I guess.” Claire shrugged off Tayla’s hand and glared at the aliens.
“Let’s run. I’m up for it.”
“Tayla, you can’t. You’re too weak. Maybe we should do what they want and live to try again.”
Tayla had forgotten her mitochondrial condition. Adrenaline fueled her body now, but Claire was right. Tayla couldn’t run to save her life.
The aliens edged forward. The shorter of the two didn’t seem as confident as the first; it kept glancing at its taller counterpart for direction. Its skin was translucent green and slick, with far less creases and wrinkles compared to the other aliens she’d seen.
The taller, military-looking one approached Tayla and pushed the muzzle of its weapon into her chest. She yelped at the pressure and took a step back, as the intimidating alien threatened her with bared teeth. Agonizing dread inched up her spine and her legs began to buckle. Claire reached out and held her up.
“Leave my friend alone,” a small but familiar voice said from behind the aliens.
The pair glanced back at Sam standing there, then turned back to Tayla and Claire, seemingly ignoring the boy.
Tayla’s heart gave a jolt. Sam looked so innocent. The kid didn’t seem to notice the danger all around him.
Or maybe he does, a little voice said from the dark recesses of her mind. Maybe he is one of them.
“I warned you about the openation.” Sam frowned and put his finger to his lips. “I wasn’t s’posed to tell you, you know.”
“Sam, what are you doing here?”
“I came to take care of my friend.” He pushed between the aliens but still they ignored him. Sam smiled and took Tayla’s hand. “This way.” He pulled her out of the alcove, leaving her no choice but to follow.
Claire caught up and fell into step beside them. “Tayla! Where’s he taking us?”
“It’s not far.” The boy said.
Tayla glanced over her shoulder, the aliens were close behind, ushering them along the dark endless corridor.
In Tayla’s periphery, shadows shifted in dim-lit alcoves. She did her best to ignore them and focused ahead, but a sense of foreboding overwhelmed her, forcing her legs to weaken. Sam squeezed her hand and looked up at her. “Not far now. Then you can rest.”
Claire clutched Tayla’s other hand. “Where’s he taking us?” she asked again.
“Home, I hope,” she whispered back. Her legs were barely holding her up and her condition deteriorated with each step.
“Why don’t you ask your little friend?” Claire said in Tayla’s ear.
“He’s not my...” Tayla saw a wary look come over the boy’s face. “Sam, my...my friend, where are you taking us?” Why was this young child so at ease with the aliens?
“You’re going to sleep soon,” Sam said, but he wasn’t making any sense. “When you wake, you’ll feel better. You wait and see.”
“Why are you helping them? I thought I could trust you. Friends are supposed to help each other,” Tayla said as he drew her along.
“Maybe he doesn’t have a choice,” Claire hissed, throwing a look over her shoulder at the armed aliens.
Sam shrugged and began humming a melodic tune. He guided them to an alcove at the side of the corridor and stopped to allow a group of aliens to pass in the opposite direction. An injured alien limped behind them, and Tayla somehow knew it was a dinnarei. It bore a defeated look on its bruised and battered face. The dinnarei was flanked by four aliens—terudithans—each holding a weapon.
As they passed by, in the dim light Tayla noticed a young boy holding the injured dinnarei’s hand. The boy looked identical to Sam. She opened her mouth to ask, but Sam pulled her out of the alcove, and they continued down the dark corridor. Claire and the soldiers followed close behind.
“We’re going home, aren’t we, Sam?”
With every step they took, her fear grew. Her mind screamed, Run! Hide and save yourself! But she wanted to trust Sam—he seemed so innocent—but that little voice continued to yell its warning over and over.
Claire moved beside her. “I don’t like this.”
Sam continued to pull Tayla’s hand as she glanced at her sister. “What other choice do we have?”
Sam dropped her hand and moved to the side of the corridor. It opened into a larger alcove with floor-to-ceiling windows. “Let’s stop to see the view.”
At first glance, Tayla thought it was night-time. She couldn’t be more wrong. They peered out at countless glittering stars as far as the eye could see. It didn’t make any sense. They were on Earth, weren’t they? Her mind didn’t want to believe it. No way were they in space.
We’re on a ship! Tayla had no words. Claire gripped her hand. There’s no escape.
Sam stepped to the glass. “Isn’t it beautiful? One day, when I’m older, they will let me visit a planet with a beach. Maybe my dad can come too.” Sam left a cloud of mist on the window as he spoke.
“This can’t be real?” Claire said. “How did we get here?” Her sister’s eyes were glued to the vision beyond the window, mouth gaping open.
All hope drained from Tayla, and she felt tears welling in her eyes for both her and her sister. She looked at the vista of space and felt utterly cold.
The Terudithan soldiers snarled and motioned with their weapons to move.
Sam tugged at her sleeve, and she pulled her gaze away to look down at him. “We have to keep moving.”
“Claire, are you okay?” Tayla forced her legs to move. She looked at her sister, heart melting at the horror she saw there.
“I never knew we were on a bloody ship in bloody space! How the hell are we going to escape now?” Claire’s face tightened, and she slowed pace. An alien snarled again, making her move faster.
“I don’t know, but I’m not giving up.” Tayla took Claire’s hand to give her comfort but tried not to allow herself to think about the futility of their situation. Although the possibility never entered her head that they were on a spaceship. She assumed they had been perhaps in an underground alien facility. They halted in front of a large white section of wall, and her legs suddenly felt like wet spaghetti.
Sam gestured at the wall. “I’m not allowed inside.” He pushed his long blonde hair from his eyes and stepped a few feet away.
“Hold up, Sam. Wait.” Against her better judgement, Tayla had to know. “What will they do to us?” She felt numb, hopeless. Claire clutched her arm too tight.
“It’s time to sleep now. But it won’t hurt.” Sam smiled and put out a hand. A panel of light symbols appeared, and he waved his small hand over them. A seamless door in the wall slid open.
Tayla and Claire glanced at one another, mirroring the other’s fear. A soldier prodded Tayla with its weapon. Holding onto Claire, they both reluctantly stepped through.
Eleven
Claire supported Tayla as excruciating pain pierced her ears after the pressure changed in the small room. They were trapped between two doors.
> “Are you okay, sis?” Claire asked.
Tayla nodded but was unable to speak. She’d felt that same pain before, each time they took off or landed on an airplane.
The second door opened to reveal a multi-level chamber, the size of a large football field, its outer walls lined with thousands of pale-gray cocoons ranging in size from five to eight feet tall. Each cocoon crackled with blue energy, as though tiny lightning storms swirled around them.
“What the hell do you think lives in those?” Tayla’s voice shook with fear, tears clung to her lashes as their captors pushed them along a cocoon-lined path.
“Whatever they are, I hope we don’t have to find out.” Claire squeezed Tayla’s hand as a cacophony of noises echoed throughout the chamber, chattering, snarling and clicking. A scream erupted somewhere ahead.
Claire gasped, and they exchanged wide-eyed glances. Tayla squeezed her sister’s hand, but she knew nothing could ease their fear now. Another tortured scream echoed off the chamber walls. Tayla shuddered and glanced over her shoulder, checking to see if the aliens were distracted and maybe they could run for it. But the Terudithan soldiers were close behind, weapons directed at them.
The pathway opened to reveal thousands more cocoons attached to long horizontal tubes, all of which moved in a circular motion on a rotating structure.
Like a slow rotisserie.
Each section moved upward toward the peak of the chamber and a glowing ball of light so bright Tayla flinched. It looked like a miniature sun.
A hive of activity surrounded them as more Terudithan aliens tended numerous desiccated, flaking cocoons. The floor was carpeted with layers of peeling husks and puddles of strange thick liquid. Tayla pulled on Claire’s arm to slow their pace, putting off the inevitable, but the alien at her back screeched a warning and pushed her forward into the cavernous alien factory, closer to the echoing screams ahead.
Rows stacked upon rows of deep-green cocoons hung empty like clothes on a drying-rack—waiting to be filled, but with what? Were they to become fresh meat for whatever gestated in those things? Her imagination ran wild, fear supplying her with a steady stream of horrific images.
