First Contact: Book One in The Deepening Series (A Space Rock Opera Romance Adventure)

by Kelly Brewer

  “YOOUUU are the Witch!”

  It glanced back at Moore’s crumpled body.

  YOU are….THE ACURZZZZZZZED ONE…ACURZZZED…..ONE… WILL DIE…!!”

  Kyle fought back fear and anger. He realized he could understand the creature’s speech. Maybe they could communicate.

  Kyle asked, “Who, what are you?”

  “We are All Zizzzz…I am only Hawk…I die to protect …uszz..”

  “I will die to protect mine too!” Kyle assured the faltering being.

  “ALL WATER-DEMONZZZ WILL DIE! dieEEE!…”

  Hawk’s strength diminished rapidly. The voice now seemed to come out of it, rather than from all around them. Those still on stage stepped closer, in awe of the scene. The thing lay flat, looking around furtively, sputtering, fearful of the faces above it.

  “All menzzzzzz…. will burn before uzzzz…uzz,tt….

  You take not…..my kinzzz… waterzz!

  It izzzz….hidden….it izz…. protected,tt….

  My kinzzzzz…elevate… to protect itt,t……

  Only zero… awaitzzzz… demonzzz here… ”

  “You killed my best friend!!!” shouted Kyle down at the weakening beast.

  Its newly solidified form reacted to his voice, writhing weakly, in pain. Kyle realized this thing was the “dirt genii” from his dream.

  Here it was, for real, with the same murderous intention.

  Freaking weird!

  Kyle had both boots on the thing and the creature solidified completely under his feet.

  Perfect.

  “Let’s try a bullet one more time.”

  He raised his pistol and fired the rest of the clip downward into the stage floor. The creature’s upper torso and head divided in a splatter, the bullets lodging in the thick, plastic deck beneath. Its shifting movements hissed to a stop.

  Kyle stepped off the hot, dead thing. Though solid, the alien was unsubstantial. It resembled a deep-sea creature brought up and spilled onto a solid deck. Its structure could not support its weight, and it lay flat and dead.

  All Kyle could think was, That will be an interesting alien autopsy for Hadjii!

  Around him, the entire scene was one of wreckage. Moore was clearly dead. Kyle took a few steps in his dead friend’s direction but medi.borgs were already gently bagging him. Kyle despaired, holding his blistered arm where the thing had grabbed him.

  That’s when shock set in.

  His best friend was gone.

  CHAPTER 89

  CARNAGE

  In the wings, bodyguards and several human security lay dead, their bodies charred and smoking. Tamer lay clutching his leg in agony. Mooney rolled out from under the box.bot breathing roughly, color drained from his face.

  The damn thing was a poisonous killing machine.

  Gina.baby lay shattered next to Paul’s severed body. She was the blur that had deflected the gunman’s intentions at the last second, taking the bullet in her neck. Her head was mostly separated from the body, a few wires still attached. Blood and oil spread in a puddle around the convulsing remains.

  Her pretty mouth moved like a fish out of water, gulping for air, face contorting into everyone’s face she had ever recorded. Among others, Kyle saw himself, Mercy, poor Moore, Paul… and Dock with a look of rage he had never seen before. Kyle recoiled, sickened and in shock.

  He looked out over the Neptunian audience. The creatures were dissipating. The Hawk thing’s death had spooked them. Thousands of fearful fans were still scrambling over each other towards the exits. Fist fights and flesh feasts had broken out all over the arena. Droids, human security, and inspectors were leaping upon crazed fans, injecting Hadjii’s antidote.

  Kyle prayed it would work.

  Where was Mercy? Where was his wife? Almost as if she read his mind, he felt her grab his shoulders from behind. He spun around and looked her over. She was fine!

  Mercy

  It all happened so fast.

  She was the center of the world, Kyle was holding her. Then he grabbed her roughly and slung her to the ground. Jackie.bot was hovering offstage nearby and zipped to her side, raising a deflective shield, and recording the event that unfolded.

  “What the f…!!” she stood and screamed and that’s when she saw what Kyle saw.

  A large man was being lifted from a wheelchair offstage, gun in hand, aiming at Kyle. The man was glowing, air swirling around him. He screamed something and fired his weapon a few feet from her husband’s head. In the flash, a figure was silhouetted in an all-out run. The person’s head exploded between Kyle and the floating man, then fell to the floor in a splatter. Kyle raised his gun and fire belched out, splitting the man in two, from top to bottom. He fell down, the two halves falling separately, blood spraying in all directions.

  The swirling air did not descend with him. A horrific, odiferous creature materialized and swooped down on Kyle.

  It crackled and buzzed with fury, its voice in her head, incredulous, exclaiming Mark was not the Accursed One, Kyle was. She felt/heard in its deep hatred a palpable fear of Kyle.

  Kyle never wavered. He stepped forward, engaging the formless creature, sparks flying when they met. Gradually Kyle subdued the shapeless form and it coalesced, dropping to the floor. Kyle was lit up again as he emptied his gun into the floor where the thing lay writhing.

  She stepped forward, past the protective jackie.bot, looking at the dead creature spreading shapeless on the stage around Kyle’s feet. They were both in shock.

  “Kyle!” she said, grabbing his wide shoulders. He turned, frantic, and wrapped her up in his strong arms.

  “There you are! You’re ok! Mercy did you see… were you here… Mark!!!?”

  “Yes, I see him. He’s dead. I’m sorry! When you shot the creature, the others…. evaporated. We have to leave this place! You’re injured. They could be anywhere, they could come back! Tamer’s down! You shot him!”

  He put his arm around her and they began making their way around the carnage. Ox and Mac came up from either side, shielding them, jackie.bot covering the rear. They stopped and huddled around Tamer, who was already receiving first aid.

  “You get the hell out of here! I’m fine. Get on a fast ship and get out of this one! You’re still a potential target. Stay in Neptune orbit and I will contact you when this is over,” Tamer said through clenched teeth.

  He grabbed Kyle’s arm. “How did you do that? How did you kill that… that… thing?” Tamer queried painfully.

  Kyle said, “You know, I don’t know, I grabbed it… somehow. It burned me. And it was very angry. There’s something going on here, something they’re hiding. We’ll figure it out. I’m sorry I shot you, man!”

  “You saved us, buddy. Again! Get the hell out of here!” He waved them away and Ox plowed a path through bodies and robots and tangled equipment. They drafted behind him like a Neptune moon.

  CHAPTER 90

  CHECKMATE

  Dock never moved.

  Watching from the safety of his reinforced VIP suite high above the stadium floor, he marveled, “This has been my greatest production.

  Ever.

  Live and unscripted.

  And all recorded and protected under copyright.

  And I own the weapon that killed Hawk!”

  Kyle.

  “Checkmate, bitch!!” he shouted, standing when Kyle lit the fiend up.

  Kyle’s handling the creature was the most amazing aspect of it all.

  It had zero power over him, and he had seen many fall under their spell unshielded. Kyle’s neurological scans revealed he had only a basic UV screening-suite in place, mandatory outfitting for any type of space travel and useless against an alien mind-fuck.

  No, Kyle was something else, something biologically different.

  Dock needed tests run
on his young friend; lucrative information when he next met with the smelly, jagged bastards.

  Relieved, Dock gleefully stated to asia/bot, his new lead ass-istant, “I’ve been trying to learn the true weakness of that alien assassin army since I learned they had a weakness!”

  She replied, intrigued, “Ahhhh, soooo… that is why you agreed to help them take out Mark Moore. Moore was the alien’s target from the beginning!”

  Dock continued, “Yes! The On-Looker—the smartest alien, I presume—rightly predicted a human being would overpower them in their territory. But the numb nutz was wrong about one thing. The ‘Accursed One’ wasn’t Mark! Hahaha! It was Kyle! Happy hermaphrodites!” He laughed.

  He’d gotten a much clearer look at his cohorts.

  Kyle would be their conqueror.

  Dock would see to it.

  Dock watched him and his huddled group leave in Mercy’s tight little transport, followed by her security detail in another ship. Failing to destroy their enemy and simultaneously being exposed, the aliens would rapidly amplify their attack, for now humans knew they existed—and humans knew their weakness. The Ziz’z precious element of surprise was gone. He knew now their greatest fear: defeat in a war with humans. A war they’d been anticipating yet could not stop.

  Kyle was the key.

  And he was in danger.

  Dock folded his hands together, talking into the steeple his fingers made, “I cooperated with the alien’s misguided request to destroy Mark because I wanted Mark Moore gone too. He was the band’s weak link, potentially ruining them at any moment with his self-righteous, selfish bullshit. His genius created the band, but his drug use nearly destroyed the band and its good ol’ boy image.”

  Their image was explicitly Dock’s to exploit.

  As was their fat insurance policy. Twenty billion credits of insurance company money sweetened the pot considerably!

  Asia/.bot rewound and analyzed the video aloud, “Time-stamped video shows you still had thirty-one minutes to spare before the insurance time period elapsed. That will more than pay your expenses this trip and for us, your Lovely Seven.” She sighed when she talked about herself and the others.

  Dock could only smile, “Let’s wait… a discreet amount of time… before transmitting the tragic video to the insurance adjusters. How about a drink to celebrate?”

  Asia.bot poured them a drink high above the VIP safe room. Watching the melee on the stadium floor gradually subside, he sipped a perfectly made cocktail.

  Why had the aliens been wrong about such an important target? It would be a fatal mistake for them.

  And… something else pressed subtly on everything. There seemed to be a pattern and purpose in the near misses that had unfolded during this whole drama. He couldn’t quite make out the form of a larger scheme he sensed being played out under everyone’s noses.

  Resisting the urge to think he’d been so smart to think it all up was difficult.

  Look at poor Paul Claim, another dead fanatic with ties to the Martian terrorist and the fanatical Co-exist church. He lay nearly split in half next to Dock’s loyal, dismembered Gina and Mark Moore, ex-guitar hero.

  Of course, Dock would not have allowed Kyle Supplantis to be destroyed. Gina.baby had been close by to intervene if anything went sideways.

  She’d been loyal.

  And fast.

  He would miss her.

  Afterwards, he would have a small, intimate burial ceremony with her seven sisters. He sighed.

  Where is the water the creatures so feared would be found? Probably Neptune, since the aliens dramatically revealed themselves here in a desperate attempt to eliminate the Accursed One. Being the first to find and control that resource would be his Ro-man’s next mission. “Asia.baby, review the mining details of the senator’s failed legislation more closely. Also, interrogate Medi. He might be withholding info on Doc Hadjii. It is time to tighten the chain on that little piggy.”

  There was much to do. Perhaps Dock had a reason to keep his Ro-man legion alive awhile longer.

  The new Asia.bot summoned a small hovercraft and taxied him back to the safety of his gyro-fortress. They drifted over the maze of dead bodies, watchful for any alien assassins hovering unseen.

  “It seems flawless…” Dock, wide-eyed, went over and over the lines of his good fortune:

  Kyle eliminating Paul was a triple pay-out:

  1 - Paul gone was a witness gone.

  Kyle had seen to it.

  2 - Paul spouting preprogrammed Co-exist propaganda while perpetrating an act of terrorism deflects the investigation in the church’s direction.

  Dock would see to it.

  3 - Kyle was now a two-time, anti-terrorist, alien-neutralizing, chart-topping war hero. The bonus he and Mercy earned by keeping their word had made them both billionaires.

  An icon for the ages.

  Dock would see to it.

  Euphoria danced in his heart when he safely boarded the Ultra D, concluding, “Best Laid Plan played out better than I ever dreamed.

  Kyle, you hotdog you!”

  He tried not to skip happily around the command room when he walked in. Ro-mans had prepared a small reception for him, drinks and food for one, as he was the only one on board that actually ate. They clapped politely, surrounding him and touching him lightly.

  Incredulous, he thought, Are they sucking up? Amazing!! They’re jealous again of my bond with the new batch of droids!

  He almost felt sorry for them. “People”—they smiled—“I’m itching to play this final card. I can withhold it no longer.”

  Turning to the Seven he commanded, “Babies? La de da…ohhh yeahhh!”

  “Yes, Dock?” they all cooed in harmony.

  “Please contact Insurance Underwriters Inc. Upload video of Mark Moore’s untimely and very profitable death. Then confirm deposit amount!”

  “Absolutely. Roger that.” They spoke as one, creepy and thrilling.

  He shuddered with delight.

  “And let’s get the hell out of here! Have every one of our ships fall back to Mars until we see what happens. Go!”

  He had a final thought before they fled Neptune orbit and the beginning of an inevitable clash of civilizations. His footage of the Neptune concert and, ergo, footage of First Contact, fell under DockInHaus Production’s copyright.

  Earth governments pay dearly to suppress evidence of aliens’ existence.

  They had their reasons.

  And they had his phone number.

  CHAPTER 91

  GET READY

  After his team stowed the deceased in the last available crevices of Neptune Space Station, Mooney called a meeting with the band, the planetary delegations, heads of security, armed forces, and the safety inspectors. They all watched the video Mynas, now a famed videographer, had compiled of the final stunning moments of the concert.

  Now that they knew what to look for, several alien vapor-forms were clearly visible swooping, slashing, and burning unsuspecting people in the stadium as they stampeded in terror.

  Mooney said, “This is a war over a watering hole in the desert. He who controls the resources of the desert, controls the desert. Their ability to hide and ride the human race is at an end.”

  In the grim silence, Mooney continued, “War is upon us. We need to activate everything we can immediately. I took a shot at that thing and passed right through it. Obviously, there is something different about Kyle. Kyle has something that can overcome them. We should search all DNA data banks and find anyone else who shares his trait.”

  He looked at Kyle. “Doctor Hadjii will be here in a few hours to begin that process. Please give him your full cooperation.”

  Kyle grimly nodded. Mercy squeezed his hand.

  He faced the group and continued, “Outer-quadrant forces are on red alert. Al
l planetary systems have a basic plan to protect themselves but those plans should be updated with the new information we have. This is First Contact as far as we’re concerned. I think these creatures have been among us for some time and already know our weaknesses.

  “In light of the similarities in the Public Senator’s recent decease, the inner quadrants, especially Earth, should begin revetting everyone holding high office. Send neurologically shielded teams to each capital and make sure humans, not aliens, are running things there.

  “We should all get a Happy-stil antidote injection as well, but I’ll leave that decision to medical personnel. I think it’s clear they fear something about water. Exactly what, I don’t know. Let’s weaponize a water canon into a steam gun… something, anything. I’ve sent a request to the Driller’s association for a thousand more tankers of hydro in case it’s needed. Make sure everyone is equipped with gas masks. Contact with these things will rot your lungs.”

  The detective took a drag from his oxygen tank when he paused. A slight odor of garlic still lingered in his burnt sinuses.

  “I’m told outer-quadrant delegations will have 100,000 troops ready in eighteen hours. Let’s meet again in twenty-four hours for an update.”

  The meeting broke up hurriedly. There was a lot of work to do. Everyone was anxious to get to their version of safety. Who knew when or where these things would strike next.

  CHAPTER 92

  WATER WITCH

  Aboard Franco’s home ship orbiting Neptune, Mother lurked… somewhere. Mercy could feel her watching when she and Kyle arrived at her father’s urgent request.

  Franco told the newlyweds, “Follow me,” away from any confrontation with her. “I need to show you two something. It’s very important. Come.”

  They shuttled to a secret hangar aboard the gigantic industrial vessel where Franco and his team had obviously been spending a lot of time. In the hidden hangar sat a new type of craft Mercy had never seen before.