Vaka

by Keira Conrad

  “We didn’t really see anything. More like we felt it,” Callie said. She chose her next words carefully. She didn’t want to be overly alarmist. He didn’t take the women colonists seriously as it was. “It was large and moving fast, but it was nimble. It got pretty damn close. And it was definitely inside the security perimeter.”

  “Bullshit,” he said. He stared at them, trying to decide how crazy they were. “Nothing gets past those sensors without us knowing. You’re confused.” He turned his attention to Juno and waited for her account. She didn’t flinch. Mission control made her the civilian liaison to the security team, and she had learned to hold her own with him. She could hold her own with anyone.

  “Callie’s right,” Juno said. “We couldn’t see anything. It stayed away from the floods. It was smart. Did you get a good look at it?”

  “We couldn’t see a damn thing!” The voice rang out from the rear of the compartment almost a full octave higher than Hudson’s. A newer member of the team who looked like he was barely out of high school.

  “Larson, shut the fuck up!” Hudson had no patience for people speaking out of turn. Less than none when it came to his own men.

  “It was organic,” Callie said. She struggled to keep from shriveling under his disbelieving glare. “It had a certain smell to it. Like an animal. A big one.” Hudson’s attention was starting to wander. She needed him to listen. She raised her voice. “We kept horses and cows on the farm where I grew up. I know what I’m talking about.”

  “Since you’re so sure of everything, maybe you can explain this?” He waved to his men and they dragged the tarp forward. Callie took a step towards it and mentally prepared herself to look at some part of a disemboweled dragon alien. Juno placed a hand on Callie’s arm and tried to hold her back.

  “Maybe we should send for Andromeda,” Juno said. “The doctor has more experience with alien biology.”

  “No, I think Callie the engineer is perfect.” He waved Callie forward and she approached the tarp. Her face twisted into mixture of curiosity and confusion as she sank to her knees. The steaming lump of twisted metal before her was a machine, not an organic life form. The blasters had done a number on it, but she knew what she was looking at.

  “A drone.” She said it as if it were a question.

  Hudson squatted next to her and poked the debris with his finger. “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah. You can see the camera housings right there.” She pointed to three melted mountings. “It doesn’t look that different from what we use.”

  “Well this one sure isn’t ours.”

  “No shit.” Callie was one of the many engineers participating in the mission. She knew their drones inside and out. She also knew they couldn’t get them to work on this new planet. “You know this isn’t what was up there.”

  “Oh, I know.” He rose to his feet and extended a hand to help Callie to hers. “Because we aren’t the ones who blasted this thing out of the sky. Whatever was flying around up there torched this hunk of metal. It landed in camp right next to us.”

  “So much for us being the only life on this planet,” Juno said.

  “Yeah, well it wouldn’t be the first time HQ got something wrong,” Hudson said. There was a rumbling of agreement from the other men. “That doesn’t mean I think some dragon alien is flying around up there. We’re probably dealing with other technology.”

  Callie couldn’t hold back a resigned chuckle. Hudson wasn’t amused.

  “You think this is funny, sweetheart?”

  “I think landing on a planet in the middle of an alien battle is just my kind of luck. I should have held out for PHP38.”

  “Hopefully the other crews out there are having better luck,” Juno said.

  “It would be hard for them to do worse.” Hudson ran his fingers through his thinning hair. “Not a word of this to anyone. That’s an order. The civilians in there are on edge as it is.”

  “They heard the alarm,” Juno said. “They’re going to know something happened.”

  He dismissed the concerns with a wave of his large hand. “You ladies made a mistake and got spooked. False alarm. You shouldn’t have even been outside. That’s all they need to know.” He rested his hands on his hips and shot them accusatory looks. “You two, get back to your pod. We’ll keep an eye on things. Just hunker down and wait for morning. Everything always looks better in the morning.”

  Callie wasn’t foolish enough to believe everything would be okay, but she thought Hudson was right about the ship. It was like the Titanic of the skies. Built to withstand anything when they were holed up inside on lockdown. If an attack came, they'd be ready.

  She was so very wrong.

  4

  Cassie was on her bunk, wide awake and as tense as a coiled spring, when they attacked. The first shot struck some distant part of the ship but their bunks shook with a force that jolted everyone else awake. The aftershocks were so strong she could barely struggle to her feet. The fire alarms emitted an ear-splitting electronic bleat.

  The second alarm - the calm, robotic-voiced one - truly terrified them all: “The hull has been compromised. Quickly move to the nearest exit.”

  The colonists had run enough simulations back in Chicago during training to know what that meant: abandon ship.

  Cassie was already fully clothed. She knew Hudson was underestimating the danger they were in. She didn’t think he did it intentionally, but she preferred to be prepared, a sentiment Juno shared. The two had kept their promise to Hudson but still convinced their other two bunkmates it was a good night to sleep in street clothes, with their boots and emergency bug-out bags nearby.

  Callie swung to the edge of her bunk and jammed her feet into the clunky, insulated hiking boots they were all issued. She tied the laces and reached for the emergency survival pack stowed under the bed. She swung it onto her shoulders and tried to assess who needed her help the most.

  “I need to get to the med pod,” Andromeda said as she moved toward the door. Callie grabbed her by the wrist to slow her down. The lead physician reminded her of a porcelain doll. She was a slip of a woman, barely five feet tall, with petite features and a slender build. Upon first meeting her, people assumed she was delicate. But she had a resolve of titanium. Callie knew she couldn’t stop her, but she still had to try.

  “No, you need to evacuate with everyone else,” Callie said. “Protocol is there for a reason. You’re no use to anyone if you’re dead.”

  “And this mission is over before it started if I don’t get the cryopreservation tubes.” Andromeda pulled her hand free. “I’ll meet you outside. I promise.” She punched the silver panel and disappeared into the hallway as soon as the door slid open.

  Callie turned her attention to the roommate who always struggled the most.

  “Doesn’t it seem safer to stay inside the spacecraft?” Flora’s voice wavered. Callie and Juno were ready to move and she was still struggling to sit upright. She moved like she was underwater.

  “No,” Callie crouched next to her and guided her stockinged feet into the clunky boots. “We need to get moving. The hull’s been compromised. Congregating here just makes it that much easier for them to wipe us all out at once.”

  Juno grabbed Flora’s emergency pack. Callie tied her boot laces. They were almost ready to move. “We need to split up and find cover.” Callie explained. “The tree line is our best bet. I know you’ve been wanting to check those out for a while, so that’s exciting.”

  “That’s the silver lining?” Flora asked, her voice nearly a whisper. She wasn’t made for this place. They all realized it. But being a fearless badass isn’t what got her a place on the mission – she was a legitimate botany superstar back on Earth. When a genius who specializes in high-yield crops grown under harsh conditions volunteers to be a colonist, you don’t say no.

  “We better get going,” Callie said. Flora nodded her understanding and rose to her feet. They all moved toward the door. Juno slapped the
door control and they were thrust into the confusion of the corridor. It was packed with other women in various stages of readiness. Some were half dressed. Others were still in their pajamas. And a few thought it was all a drill.

  Juno took control. “Keep moving toward the exit,” she yelled up and down the hallway. “Remember the plan. Remember our drills. You’ve practiced for this. Grab your go bags and head for the tree line.”

  She made eye contact with Callie and motioned for them to keep moving. Flora was still a little out of it. She looked like she was sleepwalking through a nightmare. Callie took her hand and promised she wouldn’t let go.

  “We can do this, Flora,” she said. “One step at a time. We’ll be out of here before you know it.”

  “That’s what I’m worried about.”

  Another explosion thundered through the ship. The floor shifted underneath them. Callie was slammed against the shuddering walls, but Flora held onto her. The ceiling tiles split apart and wiring and duct work spilled out, like electric guts. Sparks and shrapnel tore at their skin. The lights went out. Still, they huddled together and inched toward the exit. The air was thick with noise and debris, but they kept moving.

  Callie breathed a sigh of relief when the backup power kicked in and the emergency lights flickered to life in the corridor. They were dim, but it was something to light their way. She wouldn’t dare complain.

  They breathed a collective sigh of relief as they reached the loading bay door, but things weren’t looking any better outside. The sky was clouded with smoke. It smelled of burned metal. Women were screaming.

  Callie and Flora huddled under the ship near the airlock. The security team fired into the sky, at the unseen attackers, and waved evacuees away from the ship.

  “Head to the forest! Spread out. Don’t make a target of yourself.” Everyone for herself, in other words. The natural order of things whenever shit hits the fan.

  Callie and Flora exchanged a worried look. Juno exited the ship and joined them.

  “You made it just in time,” Callie said. “We were just getting ready to haul ass across this alien hellscape.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t want to miss that.” Juno, cocky as always, winked at them both. They didn’t have a chance to respond. She started jogging through the smoke, and they followed.

  The air cleared as they approached the camp perimeter, and Callie saw the enemy for the first time. They looked like a pack of small droids that hovered over the ground. The visitor from last night was back, and it brought friends.

  5

  They raced across the rocky flats. Chunks of slate-like substance skittered loose under their feet and clouds of dust rose in their wake. The immediate area around camp looked like every picture Callie had seen of the surface of the moon. Dry and desolate. But as they approached the tree line, tiny plants sprouted through cracks in the ground. At first there were one or two, but they formed a ground cover before long. Callie wished she had the time to stop and look at the planet she had longed to explore, but she noticed something far more pressing.

  The droids were picking women off one by one.

  Callie watched as a colonist she recognized, a fellow engineer named Jenny, tried to flee. She willed her to outrun the machine, and she thought, for a moment, that Jenny might make it to the trees. But a second and third droid joined the chase, and they zapped her with some kind of an alien weapon that made a loud crackling sound like a taser. Callie didn’t even have time to come up with a plan to intervene. Jenny slumped to the ground.

  Callie had never seen a person die before and she paused. But she quickly realized her mistake. Jenny wasn’t dead. Just frozen in place. And then she was encased in a purple beam of light and sucked into the sky. She awakened as she was lifted into the air, and her terrible screams shook Callie to her core.

  She shook her head to clear the sound and ran to catch up with Juno and Flora. It looked like they were going to make it and she planned on being with them when it happened. Besides, she couldn’t do anything to help Jenny now.

  She tried to run faster but her legs felt as heavy as iron. Her lungs ached for more oxygen, but she couldn’t breathe any more quickly. The only sound she heard was each panicked, raspy gulp.

  That and the same electric crackling that had taken Jenny down.

  Now that she heard it, she could almost feel it behind her. She pumped her arms and tried to tap into some reserve of energy deep within. The kind that helps frantic parents lift an automobile off their children. She was afraid to look over her shoulder. Afraid to see how close it was. Afraid to realize she wasn't going to make it.

  She felt the blast in the small of her back. It reminded her of the time she put her hand on a sparkler at a Fourth of July party. The shock of the pain took her breath away. Her legs crumpled beneath her. She tried to yell for Juno and Flora, but she couldn't get the words out. She prayed for them to turn around and see her, but they didn’t.

  Someone was watching her. She saw him step from the trees as she tumbled to the ground.

  He bounded over the terrain with a practiced ease and sprinted toward her. He looked basically human, but his skin was iridescent and he was quite a bit larger than a typical Earth man. His clothing, a loincloth and leather boots, confused her. He clearly wasn’t a member of the security team. Besides, she would have noticed if someone that tall, broad-shouldered, and handsome was on board.

  His muscles flexed and rippled as he raced to her. His jaw clenched in determination and his greedy blue eyes focused on Callie with laser-like intensity. She had waited her entire life for someone, anyone, to look at her like that. Like he really saw her. Like she was everything.

  She held her breath as he slid to the ground next to her and enveloped her in his arms. In seconds, he jumped back to his feet with Callie cradled in his embrace. Up close, she saw that his skin was covered in tiny scales that were soft to the touch.

  The droid zapped him, but the weapon didn’t affect the stranger at all. Other than making him extremely angry. He tossed Callie over his shoulder, released a strangled howl of rage, and grabbed the cattle-prod type protrusion from the droid. He tore it off and battered the machine until it was just a crumpled shell of alloy.

  Callie didn’t know what to think. She was grateful to the being who had rescued her, and her current predicament was certainly better than being sucked up into the light with the other captives. When he kept her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and started bounding into the forest, she started to worry. He was hot and he saved her and he looked at her like she was a goddess, but she had no intention of trading one captor for another. She needed things to slow down.

  “Put me down! I need to find my friends and help the others.”

  She tried to push against him, but he was so damn strong. A flash of panic surged through her. She pounded his muscled back with her open hands, but he just held her tighter. Like she was some sort of prize. Is that what he thought she was?

  "Let her go!" Juno approached in a combat crouch with her blaster extended. The weapon was too small to do any good against the droids or spaceships – the security team wasn’t about to issue the colonists serious weapons - but it could kill her rescuer. She didn't plan on being his captive, but she didn't want him hurt, either.

  "She told you to put Callie down!" Flora was there, too. Out of breath and terrified, while clutching her blaster with both hands.

  She opened her mouth to explain, but she was too late. Flora squeezed off a shot and the blast struck his side. Her rescuer fell to his knees and released his grip on her. A soft grunt escaped from his lips as Juno and Flora helped Callie to her feet and pulled her away.

  Everything was moving too fast. This was all wrong.

  “Back off, asshole!” Juno still had her blaster unholstered and aimed at him.

  The barbarian struggled to his feet. A scowl darkened his handsome face and he stared at his wound in disbelief.

  “Leave him alone,” Callie
cautioned. “He saved me from the droids.”

  “You fools.” His voice boomed through the trees in perfect English. “If I truly wanted to claim her, nothing would stop me.” His face was twisted in anger as he leapt into the undergrowth and disappeared.

  6

  Callie's communication device buzzed. The tiny screen strapped to her wrist displayed an update ordering the colonists back to camp. The threat had been neutralized and the security team was back in control. Callie, Flora, and Juno gathered their belongings and marched back.

  "I didn't mean for the blaster to go off," Flora explained for the third time. It had taken a while to calm her after the incident. Her face was still tearstained. "You know I'm not a badass like Juno. I was just trying to keep you safe. My hands were shaking so bad I couldn't help it."

  "I know." Callie placed her hand on Flora's slender shoulder. "It's going to be okay."

  "Not when Hudson finds out," Juno said and Callie shot her a look that screamed why did you have to say that?

  "I just really don't think he needs to know." Flora started to cry again. Callie moved her hand to Flora's back and gave a few comforting pats. She understood the effect Hudson had on people.

  "Everything is going to work out, Flora," Callie said.

  They encountered other colonists as they neared camp. Women straggled in, in groups of two and three, exhausted and bedraggled. Terror shone in their eyes. Their clothing was dirtied and their hair was tousled. It had been a rough morning for everyone.

  Callie wondered if anyone else had encountered a half-naked warrior. She was still dumbfounded by his sudden appearance. If Juno and Flora hadn’t been there, she’d be tempted to think her mind had manufactured the perfect hero she needed in that moment of stress.