The Next Thing I Knew (Heavenly)

by John Corwin

  "They're monsters, Kyle. Don't forget it." But it was easy to forget it, looking at these gorgeous creatures. Even with the extra arms and wings, they were easily the sexiest, most beautiful beings I'd seen.

  Alpha team arrived, consisting of our best people, including Anil, Jane, Mike, and Chris. I'd begrudgingly included Bethany since Anil recommended her as a candidate. I'd learned that Anil was a pretty good judge of skill and character, so I didn't call him out on Bethany even though I knew she couldn't possibly outshine some of our beta team members.

  I assigned Chris the fat guy, and Bethany the shortest, not to mention, flat-chested female who was still a good seven feet tall. Anil gave me a resigned look. I could feel Kyle's eyes glaring at me too. Neither Chris nor Bethany said a word. I was surprised they even listened to me. Somewhere along the way I'd become the one everyone listened to and accepted as leader. I suspected Anil and Kyle had something to do with it. Why they decided on letting me fill the position confused me. Anil seemed the perfect choice. Everyone liked him and he actually knew what the hell he was doing.

  "If the Shaval threaten the Rrilk, each of you will do an immediate takedown merge," I said. "It's not the best way, but it's at least guaranteed to take them out of action."

  "Otherwise we'll start normal assimilations when they sleep?" Mike asked.

  "That's the plan."

  "Damn you got a sexy beast," someone said to another unidentified person.

  Anger stirred in me. I waved me hands. "Just a darned minute."

  All eyes turned to me.

  "Don't forget for one single minute what these things are." I pointed to the city on the horizon. "They killed us and they probably plan to kill the Rrilk. Why they haven't done it yet, I don't know. If I've learned anything, appearances are deceiving. We thought the Rrilk were monsters and now we know how wrong we were. The Shaval are the enemy until we find out otherwise. Don't let their looks seduce you." I realized I was staring straight at Bethany when I said those final words. I cleared my throat and looked away.

  "You got it, Luce," Kyle said. "Let's get 'em!"

  The group roared. I felt like I'd just joined the Marines.

  We spent the next several hours watching the Shaval as they questioned the Rrilk. The questions consisted of basic stuff like names and duties. Then they interrogated them about the "accident" with the Sst and demanded to see the bodies of the deceased. My mind glazed over as the endless questions kept coming. The Rrilk seemed slightly more relaxed, probably because the Shaval hadn't pulled out lasers and started zapping them.

  "What's this all about?" I asked Kyle.

  He shrugged. "It's like an inquiry. Considering what we know about them it seems unbelievable they'd go through all this trouble if they're gonna blast the Rrilk."

  Finally the questions stopped and the Shaval dismissed the Rrilk. They boarded their ship. Alpha team slipped inside before they closed the portal or all our planning would've been for diddly squat. We still didn't know how to go through solid objects unless we could see or remember the other side. Smaller objects were difficult to flit inside even then. Anil with all his knowledge hadn't figured out a solution.

  The ship interior was large with wide corridors, probably to accommodate wings. The floor was covered in a soft velvety material. Red leather-like material covered the upholstery. Fine wood grains fused with silvery metal made up the furniture. I'd never expected the inside of a spaceship to look like this. Especially not after the Rrilk cube. Where everything in the cube was utilitarian and sparse, this was overflowing with luxury.

  My soon-to-be host and another male split off from the main group and stepped inside a shaft. An invisible platform shot them up five levels. Symbols flashed in the air between them as they rode. An image of the red-shirted guard flashed in the air except he had a Rrilk sitting on his head. My host laughed out loud, her voice tinkling musically. Just the sound captivated me. She left the male after they departed the lift and stopped before a blank wall. A light flashed and a portal appeared in the wall. She entered.

  Her quarters matched the rest of the ship. A couple of chairs occupied the corners of the large room. Another rounded doorway led to the Shaval equivalent of a bathroom although no sink, toilet, or shower was present. The only thing clueing me in to the purpose of the room was the large mirror dominating one of the walls. My host stretched all four arms and her wings at the same time, taking up an impressive amount of space even in the large room. She took a silver rod and held it against her shoes. The leather vines retreated down her leg, withdrawing into the shoes until only flats remained, then the flats vanished. She held the same rod against her skirt and blouse. Each one shimmered and vanished.

  I was calculating how many millions of pairs of shoes I could own with that technology when I realized she was nude. I stared at her in awe. The lines of her abs were etched into her flat stomach. She had a ten or twelve-pack due to the elongated ribs and extra arms. Her breasts remained pert and upright despite their generous size. Her pubic region was smooth and bare. I wondered if they had sex organs similar to ours. Something was different in the design for sure.

  She stepped into the bathroom and regarded herself in the mirror for a moment. Then she touched the silver wand to her hair and the braid fell away into a waterfall of shiny black hair. She possessed beauty that men would kill their best friends for and fight wars over. She looked too good to be true. All of them did, except the fat one. Given how beautiful most of the Shaval were, I couldn't imagine what his excuse was. She stepped inside an alcove and stretched her arms and wings again. Mist sprayed from the walls for a few seconds, followed by a flash of white light. She exited, shaking her glossy hair even though it looked dry and straight out of a Pantene commercial.

  As she exited the bathroom, she warbled a few notes, sounding almost like a bird. A holographic image sprung up in the middle of the room. She sat in a chair and sang a few more notes. The image of a rugged handsome male appeared. To the side of his image, symbols flickered past. My host sighed, a sad little warble peeping from her throat. Tears glistened in the corners of her eyes which she wiped away. The image vanished. Another one appeared, this of a young Shaval. He chirped and warbled on for several minutes. My host smiled and laughed at one point. I guessed she was looking at messages or something.

  The next message caught my attention. It showed a Rrilk. A symbol flashed in the air repeatedly. My host held out her hand. More images flashed past. Another creature appeared on the screen. I gasped. It looked like a Shaval but its head was huge with a large ridge on the forehead and spiny bumps on the temples. Its skin was pale red. Its sapphire eyes glittered with evil intent.

  Great. First angels, now demons.

  Chapter 21

  I was starting to freak out. Ms. Tate might actually be right. Both of these aliens had been illustrated in our myths and religions and now I was looking at both of them. Was Shaval God? Had he really visited his wrath on our planet? We probably deserved to have our asses kicked, but did God really have to go through all this trouble?

  Besides, why did angels need spaceships to tool around the universe? Since when did angels cry?

  Kyle had to see this but I didn't dare disturb him if he was already in meditation. My host finally turned off the hologram and pressed another button. A flat white surface shimmered into place where the hologram had been. My host climbed onto it, sinking into the soft material and lay on her stomach. As she did, her wings folded out, covering her like a downy blanket. These things were better than Snuggies. I wondered if she could fly with them. They easily stretched as wide as my host was tall, but it seemed impossible they could generate enough lift for someone with her mass even if she had hollow bones. The extra pair of arms had to add a lot of weight too.

  I examined her back where the wings joined it. A hard mass of muscle ran the length of her back, much larger than the back muscles of a human. I studied her for a moment, fascinated until I remembered I wasn't here to gi
ve her a physical.

  It took a moment to collect my thoughts and tuck them away after I assumed the meditative posture Anil had taught us. I took my forefinger and pressed it to her temple. I'd halfway expected something supernatural to happen or perhaps to glimpse images of Heaven. I was disappointed. The process was similar to what I'd gone through with Zhrrii. My new host was every bit as alien to me as she had been. Despite the physiological differences between the Shaval and the Rrilk, both had languages based on musical intonations. It took me a while to decipher language, however, because the Shaval had several different methods for communication. Their spoken language used words and notes that could be mostly heard by humans but not easily produced. They had a written language based upon their spoken language, but my host only knew of it in passing.

  Their primary method of communication was based on the symbols I'd seen them flashing each other. I reviewed several of her memories. I found several with the ruggedly handsome Shaval from the video in them. He was or had been her lover until recently. When they communicated, they almost exclusively used the spoken language. I skipped through her memories until I found more recent ones. It was difficult to translate the symbols they flashed each other and it annoyed me that I couldn't seem to absorb the knowledge like I had the spoken language. In her memories, she understood the symbols, but it was like the translation was going on somewhere else other than her brain.

  I dug for a while until I stumbled across something else. It felt like another being was inside of her. She had an implant. An organic computer of some sort. I figured out how she tapped into it after muddling around. It was an unconscious effort on her part which made it tough to discover. After that the symbolic language, which I nicknamed Sym, translated easily for me. But it brought up a concern. We wouldn't be able to translate their messages without tapping into their implants. Maybe we could adapt as our hearing had with the Rrilk, but time was precious.

  Speaking of language barriers, I found her name almost impossible to translate into English. The sounds were so avian in some cases that the syllables wouldn't make sense. Her name might literally be low warble to high warble followed by a high trill for three seconds. I decided to call her Diana, if for no other reason than she made me think of a goddess. Stupid, I know, but what can I say? I'm easily impressed by nine-foot tall super models with wings even if they might be the destroyers of humanity and slavers to boot.

  I was jolted from my trance as she woke up. My nerves tightened and I feared for the Rrilk. I hadn't had time to find the memory streams dealing with Diana's purpose. Kyle called me, followed shortly by Anil and several others. I instructed them to meet me outside to examine our findings. Half of the team assembled within a few minutes. Mike and Chris were still missing. Harb wasn't around either. That set my nerves even more on edge. It was late afternoon on a mild spring day. I felt disoriented and out of synch with reality. My inner chronometer wanted to know why the hell it wasn't morning time. I guess aliens don't go by Eastern Standard Time.

  Anil and Kyle were the only other two who'd found the implant. The others had been lost trying to decipher Sym language. In other words, they hadn't found out jack squat. Anil and Kyle had about as much information as I did.

  "We need more time with them," Kyle said.

  "The Rrilk might not have more time. The Shaval might kill them today."

  He shrugged. "So we'll do the merge takedown. No big deal."

  Other Alpha members trailed in over the next hour. They looked as woozy as I felt. Chris appeared from the ship. He smiled and my heart fluttered for an instant. I wondered if that smile was for me. His eyes seemed warm. Trying to keep my voice steady, I asked for his report. Some of the warmth dissipated. He rattled off a concise report, voice neutral. My heart sank. Bethany showed up a few minutes later and my spirits fell lower. She, however, was energetic as an over-stimulated gerbil.

  "I found some totally weird stuff," she said to the group, without looking anywhere near me. "They have these things in them that help them talk using those air symbols. My host is a member of a committee sent to investigate how their signal was traced and--" her voice faltered. "Once they figure out how it was done, and the security hole is plugged, the Rrilk are to continue their job under direct Shaval guidance."

  "That's not so bad," Kyle said.

  "Actually, it's worse than you think," she said. "Another crew is being dispatched by something they call tunneling from another job. Once they're here, the current workforce is to be liquidated."

  "Assholes!" Kyle said, slamming one fist into his open palm. "At least we have time."

  "If tunneling is how the Shaval traveled here, then the other workforce could be here in no time," I said. "Besides, the Rrilk will refuse to work and the Shaval will probably kill them sooner."

  We observed the Shaval all day, our nerves on edge. They spent a good while in the hologram room using the equipment to send messages. I watched the symbols flash between Diana and Chris's host, Gabriel. To keep things simple, we'd named some of our hosts after angels. Ms. Tate would crap a brick if she knew. Since Diana was standing relatively still, I tried to tap into her. I hadn't assimilated though so it required tremendous effort on my part. And when she moved, it broke the connection and left me feeling drained and nauseated. I understood bits and pieces. The messages were going to Zalista, a name I'd seen in her memories. The Shaval still hadn't figured out how their transmissions had been traced.

  They brought in Zhrrii and Phiirr, Mike's Rrilk host, for questioning. Harb's host, the muscular angel, brought them in. He'd earned the name Azriel since he looked like the ass-kicker of the bunch. Harb still hadn't shown up but things were moving too fast to worry about him. A deep evil part of me hoped he'd been swallowed up by Azriel. Harb was a ticking time bomb. It was like watching a preacher with Tourette syndrome. You knew the "Shit! Balls!" was coming at some point during the sermon, probably while he was slapping you on the forehead during a faith healing.

  Diana asked most of the questions. Phiirr was one of the communications engineers but he hadn't set up the trace. Kyle and Ciirr had done it. Phiirr told Diana that he didn't know about the trace which was true. Zhrrii hadn't known either. Once we'd discovered the Shaval knew about the trace, we'd decided it'd remain a secret by necessity since Zhrrii and her kind had trouble lying. Kyle had tweaked Ciirr's memories so he wouldn't remember it but the effort had drained Kyle too much to rely on that ability as a weapon.

  Rrilk symbols flashed before Diana. Phiirr trumpeted back a fearful reply, again denying knowledge. Diana's eyes flashed with anger. Her wings whipped out and one batted Phiirr across the floor. He slid to a halt in a tangle of tentacles making a whimpering noise. Diana spoke, her strange voice warbling out an angry statement. Rrilk symbols flashed, translating it:

  "I don't have time for games you stupid animal." She spun to Azriel. "What do you think?"

  He spoke aloud, and the translator interpreted them as well. "It must have been an accident. I don't think these creatures are smart enough to do it."

  "I gave up my vacation for this?" Diana said. She made a motion and the Rrilk translator stopped following their conversation.

  "This is not good," I said. "These guys have a superiority complex bigger than Miss Compton's butt."

  "And she had the biggest butt of them all," Kyle said.

  "If we don't take control of them soon, things will go badly for our Rrilk friends," Anil said.

  A red feather drifted nearby and drew my attention. Nibbles stood watching it.

  "Nibbles," I said and picked him up. He meowed and rubbed his tail over my face. I laughed. "Where have you been? I'm sorry kitty, kitty. I got so busy that I forgot all about you."

  He meowed again then jumped to the floor and stalked the red feather.

  "I think Nibbles understands that the Shaval threat comes before his feline feelings," Kyle said.

  The Shaval entered their ship after dark to eat. I called the team together. E
veryone showed up except for Harb. Nobody knew where he was. I called him but he was either ignoring me or something had happened to him. I was pissed but managed to keep from ranting about it. There was too much to be done.

  Almost half of the team was having issues assimilating with their hosts. The Rrilk had been different, but their gentle, almost simple nature made them easier to understand at least from a purely informational standpoint. The Shaval were far more complex especially with their implants. Two members of our team were noticeably pale and weakened from their attempts. They'd been unable to maintain the meditative wall that kept back the host's flood of consciousness and had to withdraw and recuperate.

  Those of us who had successfully found the implants merged and shared the information with those who hadn't. I hoped it was enough.

  The Shaval continued their investigation until the early morning hours before retiring. I paced back and forth in Diana's quarters, waiting for her to go to sleep. She watched messages, presumably from her family back home and recorded a couple of messages. I understood some Sym, but not enough to make sense. The images flashed past too quickly. The image of the handsome male Shaval appeared. She gazed at it longingly for a few minutes before looking away and waving off the hologram. She sighed, sounding like a dejected nightingale, then lay down to sleep. It was hard to reconcile this private version of her with the evil bitch that treated the Rrilk like dirt.

  I tapped into her. After throwing up my wall, I burrowed into her implant. There was a lot of knowledge stored there just like you'd find on the hard drive of a computer. Entire documents could be accessed. It was much different than sorting through her mind. Even though it was easier to browse the data, I didn't know what to look for. Whenever she needed a tidbit, her mind accessed the implant and snagged it. It was like having Google in your brain. How cool was that?

  I decided to play around with it a bit. I thought about Zalista, taking care to think of the symbol that represented it. The implant accessed a glut of data then narrowed it to one phrase.