Deceit of Humanity

by Arthur McMahon

  “A kittsska?” said Nguyen. “Yeah. Isn’t that a fable?”

  “Kittsska?”

  “That’s the way the Jjask say it. My family was invited to the culture conventions when I was a teenager. I learned the Jjask language and got to talk with some of them.”

  “Well, those interpreters were wrong in thinking the Jjask were there to tell spooky ghost stories. I saw the thing. It’s real.”

  “That’s unbelievable,” said Nguyen. “But if it really is a kittsska, this all would make a lot more sense. Do you think Yost is being mind-controlled then? Carter too?”

  “That just sounds like more misconstrued nonsense. Thuun isn’t controlling anyone’s brains. They’re being poisoned— going mad from consuming the gaia’s airborne contagion.”

  “Oh, like drugs?”

  Silhouette couldn’t help but chuckle. “Sure, like irreversible brain-destroying drugs. Auto-immune response or parasitic, I don’t know exactly, but their brains are essentially melting away, and fast.”

  “How come I’m not going c-crazy too? I didn’t have a mask until the same time as everyone else.”

  “Who’s to say you’re not?” said Silhouette. “Maybe you lucked out, or maybe it just hasn’t hit hard yet.”

  Nguyen felt around her head and started hyperventilating, but she reacted as if she had experienced many panic attacks before. The recruit leaned against one of the control panels and forced herself to take slow, deep breaths.

  “I see Yost,” said Silhouette. “It’s a distant signal. He’s near the cargo bay where the Krajova is.”

  “He k-killed Bourdain, didn’t he?”

  “I don’t think there is any other possibility, kid.”

  “Yeah,” said Nguyen. “He just killed all of those scientists...t-told us he was going to do it. I don’t know why I didn’t stop him.” She wiped her cheeks dry and took in another deep breath. “Luckily, Carter was able to sneak up on him when Yost was returning to the command center, or who knows if he would have just started shooting at us. He was always such a nice guy. He’s my trainer. How could he just turn so cold?”

  “It’s not him any longer, Nguyen. Kapral Yost is gone. He’s a shell of his former self and he’s only going to become more hollow as time goes on. Now pull yourself together— focus on the current situation. Let’s go meet with Jeden Dominski and escape Thuun while we still can.”

  Chapter Twelve

  FINAL DAWN

  SILHOUETTE LED NGUYEN TOWARD THE cargo entrance of the facility adjacent to the landing pad where the Krajova was docked. She kept her vision locked on Yost. The man had stopped moving. As she closed in on Yost’s location she could see that he was crouched in a corner of the docking bay behind a wall of freight containers.

  “Looks like Yost is waiting to ambush us,” Silhouette told Nguyen.

  “Are we going to have to kill him?”

  “Remember, he is already gone. Yost is dead.” Silhouette was aware of the reservations shown on Nguyen’s face. “Let me deal with him. You stay hidden in the corridor while I sneak into the cargo bay.” Nguyen responded with only a sheepish nod.

  The facility’s power went out just as they reached their destination.

  “Oh no,” said Nguyen,

  “It’s all right, just follow my lead. I prefer the darkness.”

  Despite having been mostly torn away from her leg, Silhouette’s soiled shadowsuit still lent her some advantage when the lights were out. She knew how to use the darkness to her advantage, with or without the proper camouflage, and she could sneak up on Yost before he even knew she was in the room.

  Nguyen held back as instructed while Silhouette cautiously entered the room. Yost had started moving around the area in response to the failing lights, and he had switched on his everlights, roaming about the room as if he were on a hunt for something, or someone. The white light of his rifle swayed back and forth as he searched every nook and cranny.

  Silhouette could hear the man mumbling to himself in whispers.

  Another loud groan of bending metal shook the building as one more section of the facility collapsed under the constricting pressure of the gaia’s tentacles. Yost spun around and fired a blast from his rifle in Silhouette’s direction. She dropped flat on the floor to avoid the burst of plasma. It shot past her and hit a wall near the corridor where Nguyen was hiding. The recruit let out a gasp as it did.

  “Who’s there?” shouted Yost. “Not me! Not gonna get me!”

  He let out a storm of rifle fire, lighting up the room in flashes of hot blue energy.

  “Stop it, Harold! It’s Kapral Nguyen!”

  “No!” Yost swung his rifle back and forth in the general direction of Nguyen’s voice, unleashing wave after wave of plasma volleys. “I won’t go! They got you. Not me. Not me. No alien’s gonna get me!”

  Yost concentrated his fire on where he assumed Nguyen was hiding and walked steadily toward her location. Crackling, electric energy reverberated throughout the room. He was burning through the wall of the bay, filling the space with an acrid smell.

  Silhouette hid behind a structural beam and shouted at Yost, trying pull his attention away from Nguyen. “Kapral Yost! Jeden Dominski is on his way.” She rolled away from the girder and slid behind a pile of metal pallets.

  Yost fired at her previous location, the plasma blasts dissipating their energy as they made contact with the structural beam. Some of the explosive residue splashed near Silhouette, but she avoided it and kept moving toward Yost.

  “Dominski is dead,” yelled Yost between blasts. “Krajova Team is dead. You killed them all!”

  “I’m still here, Kapral!” said Nguyen as she ran into the room. She had turned on her hip light and angled it upward with her hand, pointing it at herself so that Yost could see her face.

  “Liar!” Without hesitation, Yost fired his rifle at his young recruit. Nguyen was hit. She staggered backwards a few steps, tried to steady herself, then hunched over and fell to the ground. “Trying to surround me, trying to trick me! Not me! Die, alien scum!”

  Yost went into a full rampage. He was now in the center of the room where he spun in circles and fired in every direction, desperate to eliminate whatever alien thing he thought was threatening him. The energy blasts burned several small holes into the walls of the room, allowing in beams of the dawn’s orange light. He screamed in a furious rage when the rifle clicked empty.

  Silhouette stayed low as Yost worked to replace his gun’s plasma cartridge. In the shadows, she was nothing. She could not be seen when she became one with the darkness. She could not be heard when she did not make a sound.

  Yost was breathing heavily, sweating profusely. He was afraid, hysterical. Fear had taken over his every action. He was a man no longer. He was a monster.

  Silhouette snuck up behind Yost as he readied his weapon. She moved in close, close enough for him to feel her presence.

  Yost spun around in a flash and fired his rifle.

  Silhouette was standing right in front of him when he turned. Her hand pressed against the underside of the weapon’s muzzle. She raised it as Yost turned to face her, directing the blast up into his chin and through the top of his skull. The man’s body crumpled to the ground.

  Not a moment later Dominski and Kapoor broke through the door to the landing pad and charged into the room, bringing in the morning light and a cloud of pollen with them.

  They looked over to see Silhouette standing over their fallen comrade, her body illuminated from below by Yost’s everlights.

  “Fucking no,” growled Kapoor with a clenched jaw. She shook with rage.

  “What the hell happened?” demanded Dominski. He aimed his gun at Silhouette. Kapoor did the same. “Where are the others?”

  Silhouette slowly lowered herself to a crouch and reached for Yost’s gun.

  “Stop that!” yelled Dominski. “Step back and answer me!”

  Silhouette held still and watched the movements of the others fro
m across the room. They were breathing heavily, sweating. Dominski was exhausted, and he was waiting for someone else to make the first move. Kapoor’s muscles were clenched, spasming. Her arms twitched. She wasn’t going to be able to restrain herself for much longer.

  “The others are gone,” said Silhouette. She grabbed the gun. “They’re all dead.”

  Kapoor launched a stream of plasma rounds at Silhouette, blasting Yost’s rifle out of her hand. Silhouette dropped down and grabbed the knife from Yost’s side, then she tumbled backwards toward cover. Multiple shots came within inches of hitting Silhouette in the back as she swayed side to side, running farther away from her attacker.

  “I didn’t kill them,” Silhouette yelled across from across the bay. She avoided the shafts of light that beamed through the burning holes in the walls. The darkness was her safety net, but her filthy suit was struggling to bend the shadows to her advantage as more light entered the room. Her leg had become swollen from all she had put it through since it was nearly eaten by the gaia. She couldn’t hide and disappear. She couldn’t outrun the others.

  Silhouette knew that convincing Kapoor of her innocence wouldn’t work, either, but maybe there was still a chance to get Dominski on her side. The only other option was to fight her way out.

  “It was Yost.” Silhouette’s voice bounced off of the walls and large storage containers, echoing through the space. “You know that he went mad, that he killed the scientists. He escaped from the infirmary and then went after the others.” She jumped back as a blast from Kapoor’s rifle hit a container next to her, the plasma residue splashing onto her feet. Several droplets landed on her already raw foot and burned through the flesh.

  “Hold your fire,” shouted Dominski.

  “No, Jeden,” said Kapoor. “I didn’t kill her last time, and now our crew is dead. If I hesitate now, she’ll kill us both. She is a traitor to our mission.”

  “Kapoor, I gave you an order!”

  Dominski was ignored. Kapoor continued firing rounds as she marched in Silhouette’s direction.

  From the shadows, Silhouette watched Kapoor’s approach, and waited. Dominski ran after his kapral. He hadn’t given up on her yet.

  Kapoor slowed her pace and held her fire as she neared Silhouette’s location. The mercenary knew where the shadowed woman was hiding, she just needed to get a good angle on her.

  The shadow listened. It watched. Silhouette slinked into an attack position, her body pressed tight behind the corner of the freight container, ready for her prey to draw close. Kapoor had moved within several feet of her. The shadow squeezed the handle of the blade in its grip. Her next victim only needed to come a little closer.

  Dominski fired a shot from his gun as Kapoor neared Silhouette’s hiding spot. The plasma scorched the floor just in front of Kapoor.

  “Jeden,” said the Kapral. She stopped dead in her tracks, but did not turn her eyes away from the darkness around the container.

  “Kapoor,” said Dominski. “This is the last time I will say it. Stand down.”

  “No. The traitor must die.”

  Dominski fired again near her feet before she could step forward.

  “Jeden?” a voice squeaked from Silhouette’s direction, but distant.

  “Who was that?” asked Dominski. “Silhouette?”

  “It’s Nguyen,” said the shadow in the darkness. Silhouette kept her guard up, her attention on Kapoor. One more step and the crazed mercenary would be within striking distance. “The recruit was shot by Yost. I thought she was gone. She’s on the ground near the entryway to the corridor behind me.”

  Dominski eyed Kapoor. She didn’t seem fazed by the realization.

  “Don’t fall for her tricks, Jeden.”

  “Jeden,” cried Nguyen once more.

  “No tricks,” said Silhouette. “Ask her yourself, Dominski.”

  “Nguyen,” shouted Dominski. “Is it true? Were you shot by Yost?”

  “Y-yes. Please, I need help.”

  “Don’t be deceived, Jeden.” Anger had infused Kapoor’s every word with poison, hidden razorblades in her lips, placed daggers in her eyes.

  Silhouette’s focus was on Kapoor, but she was aware of Dominski as he stepped forward into her peripheral vision. He moved with caution, keeping an eye on Kapoor while examining the darkness for a sign of Silhouette’s presence. He spotted her bare leg, then his eyes went to the blade in her hand. Silhouette didn’t respond to his movements, letting him pass without conflict. Dominski turned to walk backwards as he passed her, holding his attention on the two women who were about to pounce on one another.

  Nguyen was bleeding from her chest and was only able to take in short, shallow breaths. Dominski dropped his pack to the ground, keeping his gun directed toward the women with one hand while he rifled through his medical supplies with the other.

  Kapoor took a step forward. Silhouette’s blade inched upward.

  “That’s enough!” shouted Dominski. “Nguyen is hurt, and so is Silhouette. Step back, Kapoor! Both of you, lower your weapons now and help me get Nguyen onto the Krajova!”

  “So she has won your support,” said Kapoor. “You have made your choice.”

  “What are you talking about, Kapoor?” Dominski gave up the commanding tone. She wasn’t listening to it any longer. “Please, just calm yourself and stop this. Let’s get off of this world.” He put his gun on the ground and tended to Nguyen with both hands as he spoke. “We can still escape this together. Don’t you see? Nguyen is alive. It was Yost, not Silhouette. Let it go.”

  “Your decision is unfortunate,” said Kapoor. She remained still, staring into the darkness. “Jeden, I want to thank you for all that you have done for me, for pulling me out of a shitty situation that I couldn’t escape on my own. Bringing me onto the Krajova saved my life. Because of that, I could never hold my weapon against you. But I also cannot suffer your betrayal. You have sided with a murderer— a traitor. You have been deceived, and I will not watch you fall by her hand.”

  Kapoor turned her rifle upon herself and pulled the trigger, firing a blast directly into her own gut.

  “No!” screamed Dominski. “Kapoor!”

  She hunched over in pain. Kapoor lifted her head to meet Dominski’s eyes, then she raised herself upright and fired another shot into her chest. The force of the second blast knocked her backwards. A heavy thud pulsed through the air as her skull connected to the hard floor.

  Dominski hurriedly affixed a medicated patch to Nguyen’s wound and then ran to Kapoor’s side. He knelt down and pulled her into his lap. Empty eyes stared back at him. The second shot had burned right through Kapoor’s heart, ending the pain she had suffered, that she had inflicted upon herself.

  Dominski buried his face into the nape of her neck and cried like a parent who had lost a child. His hand ran through her hair as he spoke of her father, her potential, and his love for her.

  Silhouette focused her thoughts, draining the killer instinct from her body. The unsatiated adrenaline made her dizzy and her extremities tingled with numbness. She rubbed at her muscles, worked to control her breathing, then she walked over to Nguyen.

  The recruit’s shoulder and neck had been burned by Yost’s rifle blast. The shot appeared to have glanced off of her collarbone, disintegrating the flesh where it hit, but missing all vital organs. Silhouette continued tending to Nguyen where Dominski had left off. “Your beginner’s luck is all used up now, kid.”

  Vines were slithering in through the numerous holes in the walls. There wasn’t time to dawdle over the events that had just transpired. Silhouette slung Dominski’s pack over one shoulder and helped Nguyen stand, holding the girl up with her other arm. “We have to get to the ship,” Silhouette said to Dominski.

  The Jeden of the Krajova turned to look at Silhouette and Nguyen. He saw two members of his crew who were each injured and exhausted. They were all that was left of his team, them and Jordan. Green vines were creeping their way through the cargo
bay and would soon be upon them, the only living people he had left to care about.

  Dominski laid Kapoor’s body on the ground and got to his feet. His crew was his responsibility. Kapoor was no longer a part of the team, she had decided to leave, and so he had to shove his emotions aside until another time. She belonged to Thuun now, as did Yost and the others who had fallen to the dangers of the world.

  “Let’s get off this fucking planet.” Dominski trotted over to the others and took Nguyen’s weight off of Silhouette’s shoulder, then he helped walk his recruit to the doorway and out onto the landing pad. Silhouette followed after. She turned to flip off the slithering vines on her way out.

  Chapter Thirteen

  LAST CHANCE

  A TAWNY HAZE WAS ROLLING in from the west, covering the landscape with clouds of yellow pollen. Dome West’s remnants were barely visible. Beyond was a blur. The sun continued its rise in the east, but it too would soon be covered by the encroaching gaian storm.

  Silhouette sliced away at the small vines which had reached across the platform and latched onto the Krajova’s landing pads, making sure to sever each and every one to ensure a smooth takeoff.

  Dominski tried the comm at the Krajova’s loading gate, but, as expected, there was no response from Jordan. “Power is still on in there. I locked down the flight controls, but he still has access to everything else. I know he can hear me.”

  “The vents,” said Nguyen. She was pointing at the grates on the lower portion of the ship.

  “They’re open,” said Silhouette. “Jordan’s been exposed to Thuun’s atmosphere this entire time.”

  “We still have a way in,” said Dominski. “Follow me.” He led the others underneath the rear of the ship to the maintenance hatch. “The magnetic locks have never worked on this thing. There’s only a small latch on the inside keeping it shut.”

  Dominski rammed the butt of his rifle into the hatch and it bent inward, then he hit it once more, harder, and it flipped open. He pulled himself up into the belly of the Krajova where he then reached out his hand to help lift Nguyen and Silhouette inside with him.