FictionPress.com - let the words flow| FictionPress.com - let the words flow |
| Home Just In Communities Forums Beta Readers Dictionary Search | Login Register Extras |
"Well well, what have we here?"
Jason Trent, a tall, thin man who's breath smelled of licorice, and who's face was covered in three days worth of stubble, pushed away a sealed packet of a blue energy drink, which was blocking his view of the radar screen. The bottle, flying in low gravity, knocked a similar looking man in the head and bounced off in the opposite direction.
"You dumb shit, watch what you-"
Jason brought a finger to his lips and shushed him. "Work, don't interrupt." Casually, he glanced at the black screen, which was periodically beeping.
The other man, Kirk Randall, having unfastened his harness, floated across the white-lit, metal-walled room. "What?"
Jason pointed at the screen. "Three blips." he said, and the other man turned away from his breath.
"And they are…what?"
"You're looking like I am, how should I know?" He looked at the three dots, which showed up every time the green line swept over them. "Too far to tell."
"Well then find out what they are! Get some cameras that way."
Jason rolled his eyes. "I was gonna do it…"
He pulled on a thin wire, drawing his headset towards himself- it had floated away, since he never bothered to secure it back on the console. A worn photo of an actress back home took up the appropriate place.
"Mike, I'm…Mike, pick up the goddamn headset!
"You there? Alright, I'm sending up some coordinates, I need a nice view of the area on screen."
He turned around as Kirk tapped his shoulder.
"What?"
"They disappeared."
"Huh? Where?"
"What part of ‘disappeared' did you miss?"
"Damn redneck, don't be gettin' wise ass on me! Mike, hurry up with those cameras!"
Mike yelled back into the headset a split-second later. "I don't see nothin' there!"
"Stupid…just put it on the damn screen, Mike!"
Kirk pushed himself back to his own hard seat and flipped two worn switches. As the larger of two screens went blue, Jason arrived by his side.
He opened his mouth to shout again, but then the black of space replaced the plain blue image. Both men leaned closer to examine it.
"Where'd they go? They can't just vanish into space!"
"Maybe they were just rocks?"
"Texas sun fried your brain? You ever seen a rock vanish?"
Kirk almost seemed to ponder on this for a moment. "Could be an radar malfunction."
"Too consistent…maybe. Maybe it was." Jason shook his head. "I'll tell the others to keep their eyes open, you watch that radar."
"Jesus Mike, don't you ever take a break?"
Mike ignored the question. "Check this out."
The man was staring at videos of space.
"What? Those the recordings?"
"Yup. Been lookin' at em' for the last half hour. Look right-" he put his finger on the screen. "-here."
He pushed the play button and sat back. Jason kept his eyes fixed on the area Mike had pointed out.
"What?" he asked after a good twenty seconds.
Raising an eyebrow, Mike pressed another button and held it for a moment. "Look closer."
Again, Jason watched, and again, he saw nothing in particular.
The other man finally gave up and pointed again. "Watch this star."
He did. The star vanished.
"Hello?"
It reappeared.
Jason's eyes went wide. "How the hell did you see that?"
Mike shrugged. "Nothing special."
Brilliant and modest, Mike Lane, always something new to show, and never thinking anything of it. Jason didn't want to pursue the subject.
"So there was something there?"
"Looks like it, unless its just distortion. Not likely if it showed up on radar too."
Having told the other two to pay close attention to the scanners, Jason was back in his seat. A deep, heavily accented voice came on speaker.
"Carden Aiua Control."
"This is Outpost D4. We've been pickin' up some weird stuff on radar, we need a log of activity around here in the last two hours."
"Please wait."
It was another three minutes before the alien came back on. "No ships have entered that sector for eight hours."
"There was somethin' here, we're pretty sure."
"Please transmit any information recorded in the given time period."
"Will do."
Jason brought up the computer interface and set the videos and radar logs for transfer. They were on their way almost immediately.
Once he'd gotten everything, the alien said, "Stay on alert. We'll keep you informed."
The connection was cut, and Jason changed the signal line.
"Both of you, somethin's definitely up, don't look away from those scanners for a damn second."
Like Earth, Sheld's home wasn't uniform in any way- ecosystems varied. There were lush jungles, beautiful oceans, enormous snow-covered mountains, and golden deserts. The sky took on various colors as the day went by, bathed by the light of their sun and from their trees, but always changing under the influence of the Aiua's twin, Aiuen.
But even the twin planet, while not so beautiful in appearance as Aiua itself, was a sight to behold. The surface was almost red in color, and it was covered in large white clouds, twisting into different patterns as gigantic storms took place.
In contrast to Earth's own beauty, the moon was the most desolate, ugly thing Sheld had ever seen. The gray surface was always the same, an unchanging, ash colored land. Even from space, the light from the sun did little to alleviate its appearance, pockmarked by craters as it was.
This was the sight Sheld saw everyday from Carden Aiua's control deck. The mothership, easily larger than most cities, bore a name that meant ‘Pride of Aiua', yet here it was, attached to what looked more like a graveyard than anything. Many structures stood beyond where the ship was docked, some of them even holding it in place. He'd always preferred natural beauty to the appearance of ‘civilization', but in this case, even those were scenery.
Like anywhere else on the ship, this was all that was visible through the windows in Eiyen'hark's quarters. The room itself wasn't much more interesting, but the commander had always been minimalist. The only decorations were a board of medals and a painting, which she herself had made during their journey to Earth. The random use of color and broken lines showed that she'd never devoted much time to art.
But she'd made it with her own hands, and was proud of it. No one ever voiced their opinions on the piece, though she probably knew what they were thinking.
The two spoke in their own tongue. Eiyen'hark's voice was deep, lending her an air of authority, in addition to her already commanding demeanor.
"And the second sighting?"
"Twelve minutes later, in shell B. They showed as untagged Crab signals, but we didn't make anything of it, there was a fighter drill underway- we just assumed it was a malfunction." Sheld didn't normally sound meek, but next to her superior, she almost felt like a human child.
"A fighter drill? No one saw them?"
"Dark paint. No one would have seen them unless they were looking; it's even hard to spot them in the recordings. We're still checking with the UEAF-"
"They were definitely Crabs?"
"There might be some error…it could be a UEAF project."
"They wouldn't go behind our backs. Thank you, Sheld. That will be all."
"Watch your tone with me, don't forget the only reason we hire shits like you is cuz' we're too stretched to get anyone else! You have something to report next time, you make it to me, not some walking vegetable!"
The man at the other end killed the transmission, and Jason fell back in his seat. "Fuckin' xenophobes."
"Jay!"
"I'm wearing the headset, stop yellin'. What is it?"
"Get up here."
Jason un-strapped himself and made his way back up the tube. Mike was waiting for him.
"What now?"
"We've got a hole in the shell. Sector D6. Not getting any radar feedback from that area at all."
"What the hell? Kirk, get on the console, patch us through to D6!"
The other man yelled his affirmative from down below.
"Maybe their radar's out." Mike didn't sound like he believed it.
"Yeah, everyone's stuff's out today ain't it?"
"Looks like it." Mike was not being humorous though. "We've got a hole in D5 now."
"Jay!" That was Kirk calling out. "I can't get through to D6, just static!"
Jason's head was beginning to spin. "Try D5!"
Then, they heard the noise of metal hitting metal from the back of the outpost. It came again, and then again, then continuously without letting up. They heard the structure of the ship breaking up, and before they could figure out what was happening, bullets began tearing through the entire thing. All the glass broke, pulling everything into space, and that was the last they knew.
The other outposts all said there was a hole in D4.
No one had told her anything yet. Scarcely anyone knew what was going on. She'd spent a long few months in Kashmir, meditating, trying to find some peace in a world where there was none. She'd been preparing herself, mentally, for what everyone knew was coming.
Amara didn't hear a voice or see any image in her mind, but she could feel someone familiar was nearby. Not close enough to talk to yet, but she was there. That was a signal Amara hadn't hoped she'd receive.
Her large muscles tensed, and her eyes snapped open.
"Kalashnikov."
"Sir, we have an urgent message coming in from both Carden Aiua and UEAF Control"
"Put them through."
A frantic sounding man came on the phone. "This is General Evans, the D sensor array is down, all of it! Sectors C and E are falling fast, we're going blind out there!"
Kalashnikov was silent. The wait was over; the fleet had arrived.
"General, put all forces on red alert." He hung up and speed-dialed someone. "This is President Kalashnikov, prepare an emergency UE broadcast right now, and get me the Council."
