by Mike Luoma
Chapter Nine
"Well, that's two down," Alibi says as they finish sweeping the second system, looking for some sign of the Eldred. Kit looks over at Alibi from the copilot's chair, and then looks back at the controls in front of him. Piccolo reclines in a deck chair near the back of the bridge, fast asleep.
"Yes," Kit says quietly. "Two. Down."
"You starting to regret coming out with me on this wild-goose chase?" Alibi asks.
"What is this 'wild-goose' you speak of?" Kit replies.
"You know, I don't really know... it's just a human expression, means we're looking for something that isn't there," Alibi explains.
"We are looking for the Eldred, are we not?" Kit asks, confused.
"We are! We are," Alibi insists. "I just know you're, well, skeptical about this whole 'vision' thing."
"Yes. I am skeptical. But we still have another system to check out, correct?"
"Absolutely!" Alibi says, glad his traveling companion is still up for the trip. "We do! I need to calculate the Transpace jump to the next system," he says. Kit looks upset.
"Yes. But do not remind me that we are jumping blind."
"We are not jumping blind!" Alibi insists. "Krish gave me detailed charts! This is anything but blind! That jump we made into the Junzias system was ten times riskier!"
"I do not want to know that. Even in hindsight," Kit tells him. "You told me it was safe!"
"It was!" Alibi protests. "It's just that this is even more safe!"
"I see," Kit says. "I hope so."
"Here we go."
Alibi brings the Cruiser in just outside the orbit Krish detailed for this system, their destination target zone.
"We've got a planetoid in the zone," Alibi tells Kit. "That's an improvement!"
"Indeed. We must be careful. Spot any ships in the vicinity?"
"I'm scanning now," Alibi tells him. "Oh. Hello! There is something. I'm trying to get a reading on them now."
"Don't get too close," Kit cautions.
"Just close enough to read 'em. Interesting... looks like Eldred ships! The computer is identifying them based on old recognition codes."
"They cannot have all died out," Kit says.
"Working on evading their scanners, hold on," Alibi cautions. He gently eases the Cruiser back away from the targets ahead, trying not to be seen. "Come on, baby. Don't see us. Nothing to see here, move along..."
"Who are you talking to?" Kit asks, puzzled.
"Myself? The air? The Eldred? I don't know," Alibi admits. "It's something we humans do."
"I have not observed this behavior before," Kit says. "I find it... what is the word..."
"What? Disconcerting?" Alibi tries.
"Annoying," Kit finishes.
"Oh."
Alibi grows quiet. He maneuvers the ship out of scanning range of the supposed Eldred ships without saying another word. The quiet on the ship grows oppressive.
Something is bothering Alibi, but he can't put his finger on what.
I'd talk to myself but I don't want to ruffle his lordship's feathers over there.
Catfeathers?
"We must plot a stealthy course in towards the planetoid," Kit says, finally breaking the silence.
"Genius," Alibi responds with heavy sarcasm. He sits up and loses the attitude as he figures out what's been bothering him. "Do you suppose there are any of them left around?" he asks Kit in a more serious tone of voice.
"Them?"
"The Ancient Enemy!" Alibi says in a whisper. "What if there was more than one Dolomay, more than one Ancient Enemy on ice, floating out there somewhere?"
"If that had been the case, none of the Eldred would have died," Kit answers. "Proximity did not seem to be a factor. Entire populations expired on Eldred worlds light years away from Earth after Dolomay was killed."
"Maybe these Eldred were in suspended animation?" Alibi offers.
"Not likely," Kit says. "No one has that kind of technology available now. Who would have frozen them?"
"Maybe the Ancient Enemy froze some. In case they needed Servants. Later," Alibi tries.
"Not likely," Kit counters. "Even if they had, who could defrost them now? Again, no one has this technology."
"Well, they're artificial life forms, right? Created by the Ancient Enemy to serve them, and designed to be able to reproduce and live long lives... could someone be growing new Eldred?"
Kit shakes his head.
"Again, no one has that kind of..."
"...technology available now," Alibi says in unison with Kit when he knows the cat man is going to repeat himself. "Damn. No wonder Aunt Anita is so convinced we're hallucinating."
"It is highly irregular," Kit admits.
"Yet there they are," Alibi says, nodding at the ship's forward viewscreen. "Whoever they are, they sure look like the Eldred."
"Are we there yet?" Piccolo asks, waking up and interrupting their conversation.
"We are," Alibi tells him.
"What's the plan?" Piccolo asks.
"Yes," Kit joins in. "What is the plan?"
"We'll come in out of the sun," Alibi says. "I'm taking us up, off the elliptical plane of the planetoid. We'll come back down on the opposite side of its orbit. We'll hop over the sun and approach with the sun behind us. Should mask our energy signature pretty well. The worst they'll think we are is a sunspot, unless they have amazing telescopes! Set with the sun and fly in to land on the night side of the planetoid... it does have a rotation, right?" Alibi asks as he checks the charts.
"It does," Kit says. He has the ship's scan in front of him. "You can tell because this energy source on the surface rotates with the planetoid."
"That energy source is where we're going!" Alibi says, for a moment thinking he was one step ahead of Kit.
"Yes, of course it is," the Dakhur says.
"Not too smug, huh?" Piccolo comments.
"That would be where a shipyard would have to be. It would require energy. I thought that was obvious," Kit explains. Alibi has to concede the point.
Alibi brings the ship in according to plan. They cross the night-day line as they draw in low to the surface of the planetoid.
Alibi lands the ship in the dark about ten clicks from the energy source. They don't seem to have attracted any attention. They spotted two Eldred ships in transit, one moving toward and one moving away from the installation that's been showing up as an energy source on their scanners. Neither one picked up on their Cruiser's presence.
Once on the ground, Alibi, Piccolo and Kit get into EVA suits. The plan is to cover the distance to the installation ahead on foot.
The planetoid's low gravity lets them cover the distance quickly. They stop about a half click away. Alibi surveys ahead through a viewfinder. The building is long, rectangular and drab. It stands about two stories tall. A small, silver Eldred-looking ship is parked outside the structure, linked to it by an accordion-folded walkway.
"It may be easiest to gain entry through that Eldred ship," Kit offers.
"Sounds good to me," Alibi agrees. Piccolo nods.
There's no sign of any perimeter guard or any sort of surveillance equipment. The three of them close the distance, draw near to the installation. They make their way around the long building to the ship parked outside.
Kit locates a door on the apparently seamless and smooth exterior of the ship.
"My pads are very sensitive," he explains as he triggers the door.
"Pussy," Piccolo jokes.
"Do not ever call me that again," Kit warns him. His hair is bristling on end. "Or I will kill you. Instantly."
"Point taken," Piccolo says sheepishly.
"Let's go in," Alibi offers, changing the subject.
They head into the interior of the small Eldred vessel. The airlock opens on an empty corridor. They need to get to the other side of the ship, to the walkway they saw leading into the installation. They follow a corridor running lengthwise along the skin of the ship until they fin
d a crossing corridor. Unfortunately, they find company at the same time.
The five foot tall, light blue alien has large round ears, short fuzzy hair, and big dark eyes that blink repeatedly when it sees Alibi, Kit and Piccolo. It bears an uncanny resemblance to the Koala bear of Earth. The dark eyes squint as it assesses them, and then... it attacks! It leaps at them, a ferocious furry mass of claws and teeth flashing.
"GAAAAHHHHRRRRrrrr!"
Kit steps gracefully aside while Piccolo presses himself back against the wall. Alibi leaps into the air, bringing his boots down hard into the side of the fuzzy blue attacker as he lands. The alien lunges to sink its teeth into Alibi's leg, but Kit deflects the bite by punching the creature in the side of the head. The blow knocks the creature out and it lands with a hard "thud" on the deck in front of Piccolo.
"They might look cute and cuddly, but that thing was pretty vicious," Alibi exclaims.
"Let us go, before it wakes up," Kit suggests.
"I thought they were friendlier than that," Piccolo says. "Do these ones have rabies or something?"
"They shouldn't even exist. Who knows?" Alibi says.
They hurry down the corridor, across the inside of the Eldred ship. Kit waves the other two back as he stops to look around, cautious before he opens the hatches that hopefully lead to another lengthwise hallway opposite the first. Kit pokes his head through the hatch.
"Clear," he calls back to Alibi and Piccolo. He straightens and slinks around the hatch opening. Alibi follows, Piccolo right behind him. Another set of doors loom ahead where the walkway should be. Kit, Piccolo and Alibi edge along the corridor walls, trying to stay out of the line of sight of any alien that might look through the windows mounted in the doors.
They reach the doors without incident. Alibi looks through the clear glass and sees another fuzzy blue alien a short distance away from the other side of the door.
"There is one on the other side," Kit says.
"That's all I can see, too," Alibi confirms.
"I can't see anything," Piccolo pipes up with useless information.
Alibi glares back at him.
"I wish I was armed," Kit says.
"And I wish I had super strength and x-ray vision," Piccolo jokes.
"You're lucky I'm not armed," Alibi says to Piccolo.
"Threats will get you nowhere!" Piccolo protests.
"Quiet!" Kit hisses at Piccolo.
"We can make do," Alibi says. He turns to Kit. "You hide behind the door, I'll get its attention. When it comes after me, you jump it."
Kit tucks himself into the shadows near the door. Piccolo ducks into more distant shadows as Alibi walks up to the door and pushes it open.
"Oh. Hi!" he says to the alien. He turns quickly and ducks into the corridor. The ferocious alien crashes back through the doors in pursuit. It does not appear to be armed, either. It doesn't seem to need weapons. It lands on Alibi and he feels the tips of its claws dig into his back.
"Aaaarrrghhh!" Alibi yells. He lets out an "OOooph!" as he falls to the floor with the alien and then Kit landing heavy on top of him. Alibi feels the claws start to pull and rip at his back as the alien struggles.
"Come on, Kit!" Alibi blurts out.
"I am try..." Kit stops abruptly as Alibi hears a sick "crack." The body goes slack on top of him.
"Kit?" he says weakly, from the bottom of the pile.
"I am sorry, Alibi. I am afraid I have killed it."
"I'm just glad you're okay!" Alibi says. "Can you help me get out from under this guy?"
Kit pulls the corpse off of Alibi and throws it to the side of the corridor. Alibi gets up. Kit, Alibi and Piccolo make their way onto the walkway.
They cross over to the building without seeing another alien. The airlock on this side of the walkway is already open. Kit glances from side to side and then darts through the double doors into the installation. Alibi follows as Piccolo brings up the rear.
"Any more fuzzies?" Piccolo asks Alibi and Kit as he catches up.
"Not that I can see," Kit answers. He ducks through the doors. Piccolo and Alibi follow. They creep through the open airlock and enter a plain looking receiving area, a small space with a high desk. Alibi looks around.
"What do you suppose this place is?" Piccolo asks.
"Warehouse or facility of some kind, perhaps," Kit speculates. "I have not been in many Eldred buildings," he explains.
"Wait," Alibi says. "Eldred buildings? You just said Eldred building... Is this an Eldred building?"
"Yes. You did not know? I thought you had recognized it."
"No," Alibi confesses. "I didn't. I wouldn't know what one looks like."
"This place looks very old," Kit adds. "I would imagine it has been in use for centuries."
"This doesn't look like a shipyard," Piccolo observes.
"This building isn't the shipyard," Alibi says. "But I would bet the shipyard is nearby." Alibi speculates. "You'd need a storage facility like this to go with the shipyard, right?"
"So you assume," Kit says.
"Are these blue guys Eldred or not?" Alibi asks him.
"Well, they look like them," Kit admits, "but they were never reported to be so ferocious. They are always described as very soft-spoken creatures."
"There's nothing mellow about these guys!" Piccolo says, looking back towards the body of the last one they encountered. Kit heads through the doors in front of them, into the installation. He leans back through.
"Clear. Come on," he calls to Alibi and Piccolo.
"Right," Alibi says.
They make their way down a long, door-less corridor. Windows on their right provide views of the planetoid's surface. The corridor borders the building's perimeter and they follow it down the length of the building without coming across another door. Kit stops the other two in their tracks when they reach the back corner of the installation.
"Look," Kit says. He points outside at a mass on the ground a short distance from the back of the building. Alibi and Piccolo look out the window. A rounded pile of something stands out between the otherwise sharp angles that dominate the planetoid's surface.
"What? Oh..." Alibi pauses when he realizes what he's looking at. It's a massive pile of Eldred corpses a short distance from the installation, left open to the vacuum of space.
"It looks like the Eldred died here, too," Kit says.
"That's a whole lot of fuzzy little bodies," Piccolo says.
"So, if they died here, too... who are these new ones?" Alibi asks rhetorically. He sees something else outside. "THAT doesn't look like an Eldred," he says, pointing out a human looking man in an EVA suit coming towards the installation with four Eldred ambling along beside him.
"Get back!" Kit warns, as he leaps away from the window. "Whoever he is, don't let him see you!"
Alibi and Piccolo duck down and away from the window, onto the floor next to Kit. They hear the airlock opening on the floor below them.
"Do you think that's one of them? The Ancient Enemy?" Alibi asks Kit.
"I do not know. He could just be a human who found some feral Eldred somewhere," Kit says.
"He looks human enough," Piccolo observes.
"If we can get close enough, I can capture his image with my Wand and we can run him through some SA databases, see if he shows up," Alibi says, thinking out loud.
"I do not think it would be wise to get too close. Perhaps we should merely capture the images of some of these Eldred and then make a hasty exit," Kit suggests. "We should head back out to our ship."
"We should see if there's a shipyard," Piccolo says. "Still haven't seen one."
"Maybe..." Alibi responds.
They hear the airlock below them open again. They rise up off the floor to cautiously look out the window. Two EVA-suited Eldred are dragging a stiff, unsuited human out between them. The freshly frozen scream on the woman's face makes it appear she may have been alive until they just opened the airlock.
"They've go
t human prisoners," Alibi says to Kit and Piccolo. "And they're killing them!"
"Is that," Piccolo starts to ask, stops. He leans against the window. "Thank god, no!"
"Not your sister?" Alibi asks. Piccolo shakes his head.
"No! Didn't look anything like her, luckily."
"Didn't look like Miss Kay either," Alibi says with some relief.
"I'm afraid you humans all seem... you all look very similar to me, before I get to know you," Kit says defensively.
"Fair enough," Alibi tells the Dakhur. "I had trouble telling your people apart at first, too."
"Yes, I know. I heard about that. You mistook my uncle for my father," Kit answers with a quick laughing hiss. "My father was not impressed."
"Damn," Piccolo says, reacting to the put down.
"Yeah," Alibi agrees. He seethes for a moment until their location brings him back to himself.
They hear the airlock below them cycling open once again. The airlock must be fairly large, as a small wheeled transport emerges from the building. The cabin of the transport is apparently pressurized. A red-haired man clad in a simple blue jumpsuit sits behind the controls. He drives the transport off in the direction from which he'd originally arrived in his EVA suit. Alibi ducks down so the man won't see him, but holds up his wand to try to capture footage of the man's face. If he can get a shot of his features he can use the recording to search his image across Solar Alliance databases.
He pulls the Wand down and looks on its small screen to see if he got anything. Looks like a nondescript white man, middle aged, with receding, close-cropped red hair.
Doesn't look like a monster...
"Anything?" Piccolo asks.
"Something," Alibi replies. "I'll send it off now, see if we get any matches back."
"Since the man has left the building, let us go downstairs and see what is going on here," Kit says. "There is bound to be a way down somewhere along this corridor. I will see if I can find a door."
Kit begins feeling the surface of the inside wall opposite the windows, trying to find some sort of hidden control panel or door. Finally, his sensitive pads locate controls that open a sliding door to a small room.
"Elevator?" Alibi asks. Kit nods a "yes." The three of them walk in and the door slides shut behind them. A glowing down arrow on the wall beckons. Alibi pushes it and the elevator descends.