First Encounter

by Jasper T. Scott

  Lori waited a second longer. Maybe the Avari got him. Feeling suddenly stupid for opening the door, she shut and locked it once more.

  She crawled deeper into her chair, her knees tucked up under her chin, eyes darting. What if it was in here with her?

  “Hello?” she tried.

  No answer.

  “I know you’re here! I have a gun!” she said. But that was a lie. As a civilian, she didn’t have clearance to access the emergency weapons locker in her room.

  No answer. Lori’s skin prickled with goosebumps under her plain black jumpsuit. Long seconds passed and nothing happened. She tried activating the holocomm again to transmit her voice into the corridor. “Captain, are you out there?”

  More silence.

  Why hadn’t he just opened the door for himself? She’d changed the lock code just as he’d suggested, but he was the captain. He had the clearance to override any door or lock on the entire ship.

  That realization sent adrenaline sparking through Lori’s veins. Something wasn’t adding up. She slowly rose from her chair. “Hello,” she tried again, her voice cracking with fear.

  Another breeze caressed her face, and then the lights went out inside her room.

  Lori jumped with fright, and then she felt something cold and hard press against the side of her head. It felt like a gun.

  “W-what do you want?” she asked in a shivery voice.

  A low hiss sounded beside her ear, followed by a sing-song voice speaking in shrieks, more hisses, and growls. The language was completely unintelligible to her—it didn’t even sound like it was made up of words.

  But then words came, spoken clearly in a language that she could understand, and in Captain Cross’s own voice.

  Chapter 36

  Clayton and Devon followed Delta back to the elevators, popping off paintballs as they went to make sure they weren’t walking into an invisible Avari. It looked like the intruder was up on level twenty-six, but at this point they couldn’t be sure that there weren’t two of them.

  Clayton and Delta swept their energy rifles and tac lights around as they went, firing paintballs into the bulkheads and deck with resounding splats.

  Halfway back to the elevators they found several conduits in the ceiling torn open with severed wires spilling out.

  “Look like it clawed them open,” Devon said.

  “That’s a long way up,” Delta replied. “How did it reach that high?”

  “And not get electrocuted in the process,” Devon added.

  “Back when we were chasing Keera, she seemed to be able to interfere with electrical systems for brief periods. Like an EMP.”

  “Let’s keep moving,” Clayton whispered, and they started down the hall again. Delta kept firing paintballs into thin air as they went.

  “What about Lori’s emergency locator beacon?” Clayton thought to ask.

  “Offline,” Devon replied.

  “How is that possible?” Delta asked.

  Clayton tried sending a text message to her Neuralink, but an error popped up on his ARCs: Contact offline. “Her Neuralink is down, too.” Turning to Devon, he said, “What about the elevators? Are they still working on twenty-six?”

  “They’re powered from multiple decks, so they should be.”

  “Check.”

  Devon’s eyes flickered briefly with glowing screens as she used her ARCs to do so. “Still operational, sir.”

  “Good. Lock all the doors leading to them. The access chutes, too. Do that for our level as well.”

  “Done,” Devon replied.

  “You think it’s still down there?” Devon asked.

  “Yes, or at least one of them is.”

  “One of them?”

  “The lights were still working out here when we went into the armory. And they were on when we left level twenty-six. No way just one saboteur could take out conduits on both levels in such a short time. Especially not without tripping your security alerts.”

  Delta popped off a few more strategic paintballs as they went, scanning blindly for targets. They reached the elevators, and Devon reactivated the doors to one of them manually so that they could leave. Delta stood physically blocking the entrance while they went in to make sure that no invisible Avari could creep in behind them. Clayton selected level twenty-six with his ARCs, and then Delta stepped back and the doors slid shut.

  The elevator rocketed down for several seconds, then slowed to a stop. The inner doors opened, but the doors to the deck stayed shut, since Devon had locked them. Clayton stared at the glowing number 26 blazing on the doors. The windows at the top were dark.

  “Lights are still out,” Delta whispered. “Probably the same slash job as we found on fifty.”

  Clayton crowded in beside him and peered down the infrared sights of his E-14, checking the left window, then the right. “No sign of Lori’s heat signature in the corridor,” he said.

  “Maybe she realized that we locked her in and went back to her room,” Devon said.

  “Or maybe her door opened because the Avari went in and killed her,” Delta said.

  “Let’s hope not. Devon, get these doors open.”

  “Copy, sir.”

  The doors slid open and Delta pumped half a dozen paintballs off into darkness. Six splats echoed back to their ears, one after another. The cones of Clayton’s and Delta’s tac lights flashed over the nearest crimson blotch as they swept the corridor for signs of movement.

  “Push out,” Clayton whispered.

  Delta took the lead again—then froze and held up a closed fist to mean just that: Freeze.

  He pointed with his E-14 and tac light to something beside the elevator doors. Clayton stepped out beside him and saw immediately what had caught Delta’s eye. The door to the access chute beside the elevators had been torn open. The doors were mangled and blasted into the chute, charred with residues from some kind of explosives.

  “Looks like our bird flew the coop,” Delta whispered.

  Clayton took a careful step toward the broken doors and shined his tac light up and down the access chute, checking the ladder for signs of movement.

  But there was nothing.

  “Where the hell is Lori?” Clayton muttered.

  “Could still be in her room,” Devon said.

  “Dead or alive?” Devon countered.

  “Dead, if she’s there,” Delta said. “We should take a look.”

  Clayton grimaced and shook his head. “Negative. If she’s dead we can’t help her, and if the Avari took her as a hostage, then the best thing we can do for her is get up to cryo and wake more people to help with the search. Devon, I assume there’s no sign of her on surveillance?”

  “None yet... no, wait. There is something. More malfunctions. Lights, cameras, and comms are out two levels up... and they’re out in one of the elevators, too.”

  “Clever bastard,” Delta said.

  “They’re on their way up,” Devon added.

  “Check their destination,” Clayton said.

  “CY44.”

  “Cryo,” Delta muttered. “Shit.”

  “Let’s move!” Clayton said.

  They hurried back into the elevator and Clayton mentally selected CY44 from the panel.

  The inner and outer doors slid shut at the same time, and the elevator raced upward.

  He hoped that Lori was still alive and with the Avari in that elevator—better to have a live hostage than another dead body.

  * * *

  Lori stood perfectly still in the darkness of the elevator car, with nothing but her own shallow, rasping breath to break the silence. She was completely cut off. Even the comforting glow of her ARCs was missing.

  The light of passing decks strobed periodically through the elevator doors, blinding her with alternating flashes of light and darkness. Hairs stood straight up on the back of her neck, her arms covered in goosebumps beneath her jumpsuit.

  The Avari was in here with her. She couldn’t see it or hear
it. But she knew it was there, and it had given her clear instructions:

  “Take me to the child.”

  She was desperately trying to think of a way to thwart it that didn’t involve outright refusal to obey.

  She would sacrifice herself if it came to that, but maybe there was another way. If only she could reach Captain Cross on the comms.

  The elevator stopped and the doors opened onto the cryo deck. A sharp jab poked her in her lower back, pushing her forward. She stumbled slowly out into the darkened corridor. The lights were still out from when Keera had torn open the electrical conduits. If that had even been her.

  “What do you want with her?” Lori asked.

  No answer, just another jab in the small of her back. She would have selected a different deck just to buy herself some time, but the Avari had chosen it for her as soon as they’d left the access chute and entered the elevator. It seemed to already know that CY44 was the cryo deck and that Keera was there.

  That implied that this creature had been quietly watching them the whole time. That, or it had pulled the information from the captain’s head.

  They came to the sealed doors at the end of the short corridor to reach the cryo chamber.

  A hissing growl slithered to Lori’s ears, followed by the translation in Captain Cross’s voice: “Open.”

  Lori reached for the control panel beside the doors with a shaking hand. She deliberately missed the open button twice, then received another sharp jab in her back for her trouble.

  More growling and hissing. A shriek. The sounds alternating low to high and back in a vaguely sing-song fashion.

  Then came the translation: “On this setting it will not kill. But it will hurt you very much.”

  Lori hit the right button and the doors rumbled open. Lights flickered on as they stepped inside. Keera’s pod was still sitting there on the cryo level, right beside the door, the glass frosted blue. Keera wasn’t visible through that fine patina of ice, but Lori’s eyes tracked over to that pod, giving it away before she caught herself and forced her gaze to rove on.

  The invisible alien behind her jabbed her again and guttural sounds drifted to her ears.

  The translation: “Wake her.”

  “I can’t,” Lori lied, shaking her head.

  More growls, followed by: “You will.”

  Lori felt something sharp digging into her back. She winced but resisted.

  And then it sliced her open, and a hot river of blood spilled out. Lori screamed belatedly as a blinding wave of pain lit her nerves on fire. A low series of growls and hisses ground out. “Wake her now. You are only alive for her sake, but this can change.”

  Lori staggered slowly toward a pod two places down from Keera’s, but then she felt an iron hand close around her forearm and begin tugging her toward Keera’s pod.

  A hiss. “This one.”

  It knew where Keera was. She was running out of ways to stall. “What do you want with her?” she asked again.

  No reply. She stopped in front of Keera’s pod, hesitating, then felt another prick as something sharp punctured her skin.

  A growl. “Wake her.”

  “What the hell?”

  Lori whirled toward the sound and relief flooded her veins as she saw Captain Cross, and Lieutenants Delta and Devon standing in the open doors of the cryo chamber, holding two rifles each. The cavalry had arrived.

  “It’s standing next to me!” she cried.

  “Paint the target!” Captain Cross replied.

  And then all three of them opened fire.

  Chapter 37

  Crimson paint splattered Lori from head to toe—as well as something standing beside her. A loud hiss accompanied each crimson splash of paint, and soon a short outline appeared.

  Delta was the first to risk live fire. He shot it with his energy rifle. A bright red laser beam flashed out and hit the invisible target, dead center of one of the paint spatters, drawing a piercing shriek from the creature.

  And then it appeared: a glossy black helmet. A black suit with a faintly gleaming fish scale pattern. Two skinny arms protruding from its chest and legs bent at the knee. Wicked claws and small hands were wrapped around a long, slender black weapon. Small, booted feet with claws protruding from them leapt off the deck and translucent wings spread wide from its back.

  Delta opened fire again, but this time a flash of light accompanied the shot, and nothing happened.

  Clayton and Devon dropped their training rifles at the same time and tracked the target as it flew up to the high ceiling of the cryo chamber. Bright red lasers flickered out of their energy rifles, stabbing the Avari repeatedly with reciprocal flashes of light.

  “It’s not doing anything!” Delta said.

  And then the Avari fired back with a brilliant emerald laser.

  Devon screamed, while both Clayton and Delta dived away to either side. He ducked and rolled, coming up and whirling around to see Devon lying on the deck with black smoke curling from her chest.

  Clayton’s ARCs identified her life signs as fading. Somehow, that one laser bolt had burned straight through her armor. It was rated to withstand Union lasers, not whatever the hell the Avari had.

  “Devon!”

  He tried to run over to her, snapping off two more shots at the Avari as he went. It was still hovering over them, buzzing its wings like a giant hummingbird.

  The alien fired back and a wash of heat warmed Clayton’s cheek before sizzling into the deck beside his right foot. The laser left a fading, molten orange circle in the metal.

  “Fall back!” Clayton cried.

  But Delta already had Devon under the arms and was busy dragging her out into the corridor beyond the cryo chamber.

  Clayton ducked out with Delta. The Avari swooped down into view, and another emerald laser flashed by, dazzling their eyes.

  Clayton triggered the doors shut and locked them with his latest codes.

  “She’s not doing well, Cap,” Delta said, crouching down beside Devon.

  Her eyes were wincing shut. Her pulse was weak and skipping around wildly on Clayton’s ARCs.

  “We need to get her to sickbay with Stevens,” Clayton said.

  “Lori’s still in there with that thing,” Delta pointed out.

  “We can’t help her right now. It has some kind of a shield. Our shots were all bouncing off.”

  That triggered a memory: chasing Keera through the ship, and a stun bolt bouncing off her back. It was beginning to look like they really had been mistaken about her.

  Devon’s eyes cracked open and she sucked in a shuddering breath. “Kill it. I’m not going to...”

  Clayton shook his head. “Get her legs, Delta. I’ll take her shoulders.”

  “I’m already dead,” Devon rasped.

  “Not yet you’re not,” Clayton snapped. He began backing up with Devon, struggling to walk with her weight. For once zero-G would be a good thing. “I’m turning off the engines,” he said.

  “Good idea,” Delta grunted.

  But before he could do anything, Clayton felt a draft raising the hairs on the back of his neck—and then something sharp digging into his spine. He heard a hissing growl, then dropped Devon and whirled around. He grabbed his rifle and pumped a laser bolt into thin air.

  An abbreviated shriek sounded, followed by another Avari de-cloaking in a fish scale-patterned suit. A wisp of black smoke trickled from the middle of its glossy black helmet.

  Delta dropped Devon with a curse, and pumped three more crimson laser bolts into the creature’s chest before it crumpled to the deck and lay still.

  “Is it...” Delta trailed off, looking pale with shock.

  Clayton nodded and hurried back to grab Devon’s shoulders—

  Only to find her eyes dead and staring blankly up at him. He checked her life signs with his ARCs.

  No pulse.

  “She’s dead,” Delta croaked. “Damn it!” he kicked the nearest bulkhead with his mag boot and rounded
on the doors to cryo. “Let’s get in there and finish it off! We killed one; we’ll kill the other!”

  “I shot it before it de-cloaked,” Clayton said slowly. “I don’t think their shields can operate at the same time as their cloaks do.”

  “So we concentrate fire!”

  Clayton shook his head. “It just needs to hit us once. We need more firepower to take it out.”

  The cryo chamber doors thumped as if from a fist hammering on them.

  “It just realized I locked it in,” Clayton said. “We’d better get to the armory before it finds a way out of there.” He spared a pained look at Devon and then turned and started for the elevators.

  “On me, Delta!”

  They sprinted down the corridor to the elevators. Before they even made it halfway there, a deafening boom shook the ship and a searing wall of heat slammed into them from behind, causing them to stumble. Clayton turned to see a fiery, molten ruin where the doors to the cryo room had been, and a short, crouching black figure picking its way through.

  “Too late!” Delta cried, and two bright red lasers flicked out to greet the Avari.

  Clayton brought his rifle up and snapped off a shot of his own before the Avari fired back.

  This time it was with a rocket that deployed from a boxy contraption around the creature’s left wrist. A gleaming silver projectile flashed past them riding a bright blue tongue of flame and hit the elevators with a thunderous boom. The shockwave picked both Clayton and Delta up and threw them like dry leaves in a gale force wind.

  Clayton landed hard with the back of his skull slamming into the deck. He blacked out for a second and came to with his ears ringing. A crouching figure in a black suit ushered Lori and Keera ahead of it. Delta was struggling to rise and bring his rifle to bear, looking just as dazed as Clayton felt. The Avari aimed his weapon at Delta. Clayton tried to scream out a warning, but his ears were ringing so hard that it was impossible to tell if any sound escaped his lips.

  Then Keera darted in front of Delta and spread her arms wide. She growled and bared her teeth at the Avari.

  Clayton blinked bleary eyes, not sure he could trust what he was seeing.