Shadows

by Brian Whiting

  “STOP!” Alex yelled.

  Both Gothans held their weapons at the ready. They all watched the alien with disbelief, shock. The Gothans stepped back a good distance away, and Alex instinctively did the same.

  Alex reached out with his mind, to see if he could feel its emotions. Absolute fear was the only way Alex could think to describe it.

  “I want you two to back away and head to the upper balcony; you can provide cover fire from there,” Alex said as he slowly took a step toward the door leading out of the cargo bay. The space station was getting smaller in the backdrop of the still-open cargo ramp door.

  Looking over his shoulder, he saw Annunen was still lying face-down on the deck in the corner of the room. It occurred to Alex he must have landed there after the deck crashed and everything got tossed off the deck.

  “Close the cargo bay door.”

  Alex watched the alien intently as its color began to get darker. Its black, beady eyes were unmoving.

  “Are you sure, Captain?” Ga Ra Tor asked.

  “Do it, and repressurize the bay. Annunen needs help.”

  The doors of the cargo bay began to close, and all the collected alien artifacts began to slide toward the deck and were splayed around the alien. Finally, air began to circulate into the room. The alien’s color began to brighten up, to a bright pink with little hint of orange and other light colors.

  Once the room was fully pressurized Alex took off his helmet and held it in his hand. He looked at the alien. “My name is Alex. We will not hurt you.”

  Alex continued stepping toward the door and finally walked through it, closing the door and sealing the alien inside the cargo bay. Alex walked around the corner to the EVA room and pushed the intercom button. “Tulie, I need you at the cargo bay.”

  Alex began taking the suit off. By the time he finished, Tulie was present with a pulse rifle. “I don’t think we will need that. Help with Annunen; we need to get him inside.”

  Tulie shouldered the weapon and walked into the bay with Alex. Aside from being startled by the door’s opening, the alien seemed not to move at all.

  With Tulie’s help, Alex dragged Annunen into the corridor.

  Tulie disappeared for a moment and reappeared with a cart; they managed to get Annunen on the cart and wheeled him to the Gothan portion of the ship, which had a small med bay. However, the moment they got Annunen onto the cart, Alex knew he was not alive, nor would he ever be again. A portion of his faceplate was missing, and his body had been exposed to the vacuum of space for too long.

  Tulie looked at Alex and he didn’t need to reach out to know what she was feeling. Her intense rage was boiling within her. “I hope your trinkets were worth it,” she said as she left the room.

  Alex thought about how the death of each Humani was particularly potent, because that meant one less person in their society forever. He forced a deep breath and made his way to the bridge, passing the FTL engine assembly on the way. Tulie was inside the room, already hard at work. Alex made no comment as he passed by.

  He walked onto the bridge and looked up at the balcony; three Gothans were on the bridge. Alex knew a fourth Gothan was standing guard in the cargo bay. “Can we use the program that was installed on our ship to talk to the alien in the cargo bay?”

  The Gothans talked among themselves for a few moments. “No, the program was only meant to translate digital transmissions,” one of them said.

  “What if we recorded the alien in the cargo bay and digitally sent the transmission to the computer?”

  “I feel pride; you are so clever, but that will only work one way.”

  In Alex’s ear, Symboli added, “If we obtain enough conversation data, I can begin to piece together the language and translate for you.”

  “Get working on a system where we can get the one-way communication going. I’ll be in my cabin. Let me know when you’re ready.”

  “Where should we be going right now?” Ga Ra Tor asked.

  “Just get us outside the system for now.” Alex began walking to his cabin.

  The moment he entered the cabin the familiar feeling of defeat and anguish over losing Amanda and Mason came rushing back. Tears welled up in his eyes and he slid down to the floor against his door. There was no excuse this time. It was his idea to go to the planet, his idea to enter the tunnel, and Annunen was killed for it. He started asking himself if it was worth it, and quickly realized he didn’t know. Any of the devices he managed to save could be a huge gift for his people, or merely worthless trinkets.

  He stood, wiped his face, and walked back toward the cargo room to pick up the devices splayed about the whole room. When he reentered the room he discovered the alien had pushed all the nearby equipment away from itself at tentacle’s-length away. Alex came in unarmed and maneuvered slowly around the alien. He picked up the odd piece of equipment and brought it back into another area of the ship, and returned to continue picking up pieces.

  Once the bay was cleared of recovered equipment, Alex closed the cargo room and went to the science room where he had placed the equipment. Looking around, he saw that it was obvious there was nothing in the room that would help him figure out what any of the equipment was for.

  “Symboli,” Alex whispered.

  “Alex,” Symboli responded via his headset.

  “I don’t know how to find out what this stuff is for. For all I know some of these might be bombs or weapons, and activating something might blow up the ship.”

  “The only safe way is to have the fabricator build a dissembler. The dissembler will generate several reports including composition and schematic to rebuild each item. Caution should be used with this method. The fabricator can create a material duplicate of the same object, but that does not mean it will function identically, if at all.”

  “Explain,” Alex whispered.

  “For example, if we allowed the dissembler to disassemble a charged Thean capacitor after having been fried by a pulse weapon, the fabricator could reassemble the object. It would be a duplicate object, but it would not be charged, and unless you knew how to combine positive ions compressing under intense electromagnetic pressures, you would not be able to get the capacitor to function as intended.”

  “I see,” Alex whispered. He thought a bit, then whispered, “Access this room’s security cameras and, going around the room in a counterclockwise fashion, tell me what your best guess is as to the purpose of each object.” He kept his eye on the door to make sure no one would catch him unawares.

  “Done,” Symboli said. “However, without the schematics I am unable to provide you any meaningful information, the variables are far too numerous.”

  “I don’t see any other choice but to allow the dissembler to break down the objects and hope that the fabricator can recreate them.”

  “You could ask the visitor. These objects do come from the same station as it does.”

  “Good idea.” Alex began taking pictures of each object with his datapad.

  ***

  It had been six days since Annunen was killed at the station. Alex walked while reading his datapad as he transitioned from the bridge to the cargo bay. Once he entered the cargo bay, he prepared the last of the edible options available on the ship. So far the alien had not approved of any.

  When Alex entered with a new tray of choices, the alien raised its body off the deck with three of its tentacles, and the other tentacles became more animated. Alex placed the tray within the reach of the tentacles and backed away.

  “I am sorry if these options are not to your liking. After these, you will have sampled our entire supply of food options,” Alex said slowly. About four seconds later the overhead speakers began to make warbling sounds, odd noises humans would never be able to duplicate.

  The alien responded with a lengthy reply.

  “Thanks,” Alex heard in the overhead speakers.

  “It seemed like it had more to say,” Alex responded.

  “I apologize, Cap
tain,” Gs Port Tha replied over the intercom. “The translation we have so far is extremely limited.”

  Symboli whispered in his ear. “It said, ‘Thank you, do not trouble with me. I am grateful you have not killed me.’ Then it asked, ‘How long until we have your planet?’”

  Alex was reconsidering the wisdom of keeping Symboli from the crew, especially now that his translation program was far ahead of what the ship, the Humani, and the Gothans had managed to accomplish. But he did not want the Humani to know at all that the digiforms even existed. He watched as the alien picked up a piece of fish and ate it.

  He waved both of his arms in an up-and-down motion, as he tried to mimic the tentacles’ wave-like motion.

  Before he could leave the room, the interior lights changed color to red.

  Alex departed the cargo bay, looking back once before the door closed to see that the alien had quickly lowered its body to the deck and retreated to a corner. He ran to the bridge.

  “What’s the problem?” Alex asked as he entered the bridge, strapping himself into his seat.

  “The invasion fleet has arrived, our comm array is being jammed,” Ga Jute Pae said.

  “Sir, I believe it’s a systemwide jam. I do not think it’s meant for us specifically,” Gs Port Tha replied.

  “Where is the invasion fleet now?”

  The viewscreen shifted to the right and zoomed in a lot to get a view of a large rectangle that was beginning to dissolve into a cloud.

  “They are heading toward the station.”

  “Sir, a portion has broken away and is heading toward us. ETA nine hours,” Gs Shlee Bek said.

  “Tulie, we need the FTL drive to be working, like right now,” Alex said into the comm system.

  “Alex, I am reconnecting the connections now. It will be another hour at least, maybe more.”

  “Please hurry,” Alex said. Then he commanded Gs Port Tha, “Plot a course directly away from the incoming ships.”

  “We are pretty far from any sufficient gravity sources; our acceleration will be minimal.”

  “Just do it.”

  There was nothing left to do but wait. It was Alex’s least-favorite part of space. It was so vast, the distances between planets and, even worse, stars was almost incomprehensible.

  “The invasion ships have increased their acceleration, new ETA puts them at six hours.”

  Alex tried to pass the time reviewing the first schematic of one of the objects he had put in the dissembler, which had been built just the day before, now that Tulie didn’t need the fabricator anymore to make more parts.

  He started with the small donut with the tiny glass window. He looked at the wire frame, the composition a mixture of tungsten and titanium. There was a collection of gold wiring that completely lined the interior walls of the device, and Alex was still no closer to understanding its purpose.

  “My best guess is to suggest it has something to do with magnetic variances. The design would allow it to be sensitive to such things, and the small glass window would act like some kind of indicator,” Symboli said.

  “You can see magnetic forces; it seems a weak guess.”

  “It is in fact a weak guess, as you suggest, but the other guesses are weaker.”

  To take his mind off the impending fleet of death, he instructed the fabricator to recreate the device. By the time he got to the room, it was nearly done. He waited until it was complete and then waited a bit more for it to cool enough for him to grab with his hands. Then he walked into the cargo bay and tossed the metal donut to the alien.

  The alien managed to grab it out of the air with one of its tentacles.

  “Is it a weapon?” Alex asked.

  After a few moments the intercom offered its warbled translation of Alex’s question.

  Instantly, the alien’s limbs vibrated frantically; the creature made myriad tiny waves with all of its tentacles. An odd wheezing sound came from it.

  “It’s laughing at you,” the ship’s translation program offered through the intercom.

  “Nice,” Alex responded, waiting for an answer. Then the alien warbled back.

  “It’s for school babies,” the intercom suggested.

  “Babies use it to learn to communicate,” Symboli said, offering a more accurate translation in Alex’s ear.

  “How is this used for school?” Alex responded in a way that would satisfy both given translations, so as not to tip off the Gothans or Tulie that he had a better translation than they had provided.

  The alien began to warble at a steady tone. As it did the alien faced the donut toward Alex. Once the pitch and volume were correct, the interior of the donut began to produce a yellow light.

  “Or the donut could be used to harmonize speech patterns,” Symboli offered.

  “Yeah, a bit different from magnetic waveforms or whatever you suggested,” Alex responded, forgetting that the Gothans and Tulie would hear him as well, if they were paying attention.

  “Babies produce chaotic frequencies and tones. When they see the yellow, it produces a calming effect, and they like to duplicate that feeling,” Symboli continued.

  Alex figured the alien must have been talking while the others thought it was still laughing.

  The alien returned the donut to Alex. Looking at the donut and then at the alien, Alex tried to warble with his mouth, but the sounds he produced sounded more like the gobbling of a turkey than anything else.

  The alien responded by laughing with more intensity. Alex smiled and left the room with the donut.

  He walked by the FTL room. “Need any help?” Alex asked as he only saw Tulie’s legs from under the engine assembly, as she lay on her back.

  “Yeah, do you see that brass lever sticking straight up?” Tulie responded while banging on something.

  “Yes.”

  “Push it down to the right until it locks into place.”

  Alex applied minimal effort, and the lever was secured into place. The moment it clicked into place, the engine began to hum.

  “It’s working?” Alex asked, astonished.

  Tulie ignored him as she tossed some object away from her that came to a stop near a corner of the room.

  “It’s working,” she replied as she tossed an identical object in the same direction, and then a third.

  Confused by the statement and by the continued efforts of Tulie, who was obviously not finished with whatever she was doing, Alex said, “How long until we can get out of the system?”

  “Five minutes,” Tulie said as she tossed another object, except this one hit Alex in the leg.

  “Ow!”

  “Apologies.”

  “I’ll be on the bridge,” Alex said. His shin throbbed in pain for a brief moment but the pain faded quickly.

  Alex realized he was starting to get restless. Over the course of the last year he began to require less and less sleep, or it was becoming harder and harder to achieve; he was not sure which was the case. Averaging about two to three hours a night, and its decline continued without any ill effects that he could notice, except he wasn’t sure what to do with all the extra time, cramped on the little ship.

  Soon Alex was on the bridge, and Tulie wasn’t far behind. They buckled into their chairs.

  “By all means, get us the hell out of here,” Alex said.

  The ship transitioned and slipped into FTL speed.

  Alex smiled, knowing the ship was finally on its way home.

  Chapter 23

  The Face of the Enemy

  The Dauntless was in rough shape. It had been seven months since they left the galactic center of the galaxy on a rough course set for home. The FTL drive was breaking down faster and faster, and the only way they could keep it going was to simply replace valence connectors, because they didn’t have the original designs to recreate the drive itself, and now they were running low on fabrication material.

  Still there had been no subspace messages received from Earth, and Tulie advised against sending any
more messages to the Humani homeworld until they knew more about what was going on.

  The alien picked its own name. Squalm. It was nearly one of the crew at this point. The amount of aquatic food products remaining on the ship was nearly zero, and those seemed to be all that it would eat. They were on the hunt of other sources of aquatic life to replace Squalm’s food supply. Still Symboli remained a secret and even assisted the ship’s database incrementally with the translation program.

  Now that Annunen was gone, Tulie depended more and more on Alex for company. She began to give him meaningful overtures of affection, to which Alex was beginning to succumb. Meanwhile, the Gothans were becoming more and more isolated. Alex continually wondered if it had to do with their size against a galaxy of giants. He reminded himself that he should be more considerate and attempted to include them in every activity he participated in.

  Alex was in the small dining room on the Dauntless sitting with Squalm, a translation pad on the table between them. The crew had to remove a whole set of chairs to accommodate Squalm’s body. Three uncooked fish filets sat on a plate in front of Squalm as Alex sat down with a bowl of oatmeal.

  In the beginning Alex had a hard time looking at Squalm. There were many differences, and he always had a pungent odor, like a bad potato.

  “Captain,” one of the Gothans yelled.

  Alex forced a sigh.

  “You becoming more impatient day by the day,” Squalm told Alex.

  Alex regarded Squalm for a moment. He was shocked to learn that Squalm was a high-level advisor to numerous corporations on his planet. He was at the station for a conference on Talcom D, a product that was supposed to keep raw food fresh for much longer than normal. His family was evacuated while he got stranded on the station. He described a station that dove into chaos surprisingly fast. Many docked ships were stolen, hundreds were killed. For the last few weeks they had begun to fight over the dwindling food and the unexpected arrival of ships docking at the station; they often killed the crew and took the ship. Squalm said that everyone went to the dock, hoping for a spot on the newest ship. At the last moment the ship decided to dock on the other side of the station. The infighting was violent, and many were killed just waiting and fighting for a prime spot. Then everyone had to dash to the other side; it was a race for life. Squalm did not enjoy violence and kept out of nearly everyone’s tentacles, which is why he was so far back in the pack when they attempted to swarm Alex’s ship. He wanted only a small spot for himself and hoped there was food also.