Alien Shadows

by Daniel Arenson

  "I go now," Steel whispered, and a smile rose on his lips—a rare smile, a smile he had almost forgotten. "I travel now to the light of Sol. To see Mother, Riff. To dine in the halls of afterlife, a knight again, my honor reclaimed."

  "Don't leave," Riff whispered.

  "Don't die," Giga said, tears flowing down her cheeks. "Please, my knight. I love you. Don't leave me."

  He clasped their hands. His brother. The woman he loved. Even the other knights crowded around, staring with tears in their eyes, perhaps at last recognizing that here lay a true knight, their true lord.

  "Steel," Lenora whispered, stepped forward, and caressed his cheek. "Please, Steel, please. Live." She leaned down, tears flowing, and kissed his forehead. "Live."

  "I have loved you, my lady," Steel whispered, voice weak now, trembling, fading away. "I love you all. Always. Love is the greatest strength, mightier than sword or star, brighter than the sun. Carry my love forever in your hearts. My friends. My family. Farewell now. Farewell."

  "Steel!" they cried, holding him, weeping above him.

  I saved them. Now I rest. Farewell.

  He could no longer see the tunnel, no longer see the battle, the struggles of this cosmos. All he saw was light, and all he heard was the heavenly song, calling him home.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE:

  LAST FLIGHT

  Riff stepped out of the pyramid, carrying the body of his brother.

  He stood upon the tip of the triangle, a kilometer above the sand. The sun beat down. The river flowed in the distance, spreading out carpets of green. The shadows of the enemy flowed over all life.

  Yet that life lost meaning to Riff. The sun could no longer light his way. The sky no longer beckoned. He did not weep, did not cry out hoarsely. He did not tremble or fall. As he stood outside the tunnel, gazing upon the world, more than anything he felt emptiness.

  It was feeling nothing at all.

  He's gone. I can't believe he's gone.

  How would he ever fly between the stars again? How would food ever more have flavor? How would laughter ever more flow through him? How would love ever light his heart, or the joy of friendship warm him?

  Nova and Twig are gone. Steel lies dead in my arms. Let the suns across the cosmos stop shining. Let every star go out, one by one. I feel nothing. I am empty.

  The cosmos was but a shell, meaningless, an illusion shattered, all of life but a piece of paper, thin, torn, fluttering in the wind.

  It felt to Riff as if he floated above his body. As if, looking back at his life, all those memories—joy, terror, love—had been only dreams. Flickers so quickly gone. Beads of light so elusive they were as sparks in an endless, dark ocean.

  Now they were gone.

  He's gone. I can't believe he's gone.

  Giga stood at his right side, tears streaming down her cheeks. Dee and Lenora stood to his left, holding each other, crying silently. But no tears could fill Riff's eyes. No grief ached in his heart. Perhaps he was too stunned to feel grief. Perhaps this loss, this shattering tragedy, tore all of his reality apart, leaving room for nothing but nothingness.

  Air blasted his face, and a hot, burnt smell filled his nostrils. The tesseract ships were flying near, twenty or more, casting out dark beams. The streams slammed into the pyramid around Riff, shattering bricks, and the air itself seemed to burn.

  Do I die here with you, Steel? Riff looked down at his brother. Steel's face was serene in death, smiling softly, his eyes closed. Do I join you now, little brother?

  A roar pierced the world.

  Engines blasted fire.

  A jet of plasma tore through the sky, ionizing the air, and slammed into two tesseract ships. The vessels crashed down. Breathing fire, sounding her roar, the Dragon Huntress swooped toward the pyramid. The airlock opened, and Piston stood within, reeling out cables.

  "Hurry, inside!" Piston cried.

  They grabbed the cables. Giga helped Riff hold onto Steel, carrying his body into the ship. Dee and Lenora followed, and the Dragon Huntress soared—with fire, with tears, with cries of grief.

  Piston stared at Steel's body, shaking, tears flowing into his beard. Romy ran into the airlock, stared with wide eyes, then fell to her knees and wept. The ship kept soaring, fire roaring, blasting the enemies away, and still rising until they breached the atmosphere, leaving a dying planet behind. Leaving their joy, their innocence, their hope to ever achieve victory.

  He's gone.

  They streamed through the darkness of space, but the stars did not shine, and Riff knew they would never shine upon him again.

  Let them go dark. Let the night fall. Let the lights vanish, one by one. My brother is gone.

  * * * * *

  They stood on the main deck, four Alien Hunters where seven had once stood.

  Captain Riff Starfire, still in his old jeans, his chest bandaged, his head lowered.

  Piston Bergelgruf, so strong yet now trembling, tears flowing.

  Romy, for once no smile on her face, her tail drooping, her eyes wide with shock.

  Giga, a hole still in her chest, a hole perhaps forever inside her.

  With them stood Dee and Lenora Rosetta, silent, eyes huge and haunted, holding each other.

  Twiggle Jauntyfoot, one of Riff's closest friends—vanished. Nova Tashei, the woman Riff loved—kidnapped. And Steel Starfire, his brother, the pillar of his life—lying serene in a coffin before him.

  How do I do this? Riff thought. How do I let him go? How do I find Father and tell him? How can I keep flying without him? Without them?

  He looked at the others. His last companions in the world. He spoke softly.

  "I've never known proper words like Steel did. I've never known holiness, honor, ceremony. And I don't know what to say now. But I know love." His voice caught, and his eyes stung. "And now I know loss. So now I say goodbye."

  "Goodbye, Steel," Romy whispered.

  "Goodbye, laddie," Piston whispered, placing his trembling hands upon the coffin.

  "Goodbye, sir," Giga said, voice so soft they barely heard.

  Lenora could not even speak. She fell to her knees, wrapped her arms around the coffin, and sobbed silently. Her brother knelt beside her, his hand on her shoulder.

  Riff placed his hand on the coffin. "You will always be my compass, my anchor, the pillar of my life. You will always be my brother, the soul I loved more than any other. Wherever you go know, know that we will always love you. Always. Rest now, Steel. You fought for many days. You fought for us, to give us life. Rest among the stars whose light you fought to keep shining."

  As Riff spoke, it seemed to him that beings stood around him, glowing gold, not dark ghosts but spirits of comfort, of love, invisible friends soothing him at his hour of pain.

  They carried the coffin together into the airlock. They stepped back onto the main deck, and Riff's tears flowed as he pressed the buttons on the control panel. Out the porthole, he saw the coffin glide across space, its flight smooth, peaceful, like a gliding leaf on the wind. They stood at the window together, the last survivors, watching until Steel became a distant light like a star . . . and then vanished.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO:

  REUNIONS

  They sat in the sticky food court of Horsehead Space Station, the cosmos crumbling around them.

  The rusty station floated in the Orion nebula, a distant outpost of the Humanoid Alliance on the border of alien territory. Outside the window, Riff could see the Dragon Huntress's head, charred and scratched. The inside of the space station wasn't much prettier. The outpost offered a place to refuel, buy supplies, and find something resembling a meal. Cleanliness was obviously not of much importance out here. Rust covered the table, and graffiti scrawled across the walls. The neon lights flickered, and a mouse scurried underfoot.

  "Eat, lassie," Piston was saying.

  Romy lowered her head. "I'm not hungry."

  Riff stared at his own meal. He too struggled to find an appetite. They had all ord
ered from Happy Cow Shawarma—it was that or Tony's Tentacle Emporium—but Riff guessed that there was more cardboard in his meal than cow.

  He pushed his shawarma aside. "I'm not hungry either. As soon as Dee gets back with supplies, we're blasting out of here."

  He raised his head and looked at the monitor mounted onto the wall. News reports kept flashing in from across the cosmos. Tesseract ships besieging the planet of Ashmar. Shades flowing through Haven and Gruffstone. Earth surrendering, only for the shades to ignore the pleas of mercy and keep toppling cities. The cosmos unraveling.

  "We woke something in the black hole," Lenora whispered. She sat beside Riff, her own meal uneaten. "What have we done, Riff?"

  He reached across the tabletop and held her hand. "We'll fix this, Lenora. I promise. We'll fix Giga. We'll fix up the Dragon Huntress so that she can fly into the fourth dimension. And then we'll fix this whole crazy cosmos."

  He meant his words to sound comforting, yet they sent even more fear into Riff's own heart. If Dee was right, if he could build a four-dimensional engine . . . the Dragon Huntress would fly into the black hole. Into that dark land that still haunted Riff's dreams. To face the Dark Queen. Perhaps he would come to miss this grungy space station.

  "Got everything!" Dee said, barging into the food court. He ran toward them, carrying a box of supplies. "Everything I need to build my masterpiece."

  The scientist's spectacles hung precariously on his nose, and his hair stood on end. He upended his box onto the tabletop, scattering cables, screws, bolts, circuitry, and other gizmos.

  "Got what I need here to patch you up, Giga," he said.

  The android smiled. A hole still gaped open in her chest. "Thank you, sir."

  Riff couldn't help but wonder. If Kerish had attacked Giga a second time, blasting another hole into her, would the android have survived that too? Had Steel, leaping to block the attack with his body, died in vain, died to protect a robot that Dee could have patched up with a few cheap materials?

  I cannot believe that, he thought. I have to believe that Kerish's next blow would have shattered the central circuits in Giga's head, erasing her memories, her personality, who she is. I have to believe that Steel's death saved her. Saved us.

  "Dee," he said. "You and Piston fix Giga, then install the Euclidian engine upgrade. Then you stay here with Lenora and wait for us. The Alien Hunters—the four that remain—are going to fly into the black hole. We're going to blast it up. Then we're going to come back here for you."

  Lenora leaped to her feet. "What? No!" She gasped. "I won't let you just . . . just fly into the black hole without me!"

  "Yes you will." Riff fixed her with a steady stare. "And that's final. You and Dee are not flying into Yurei with us. This is a job for the Alien Hunters, and only the Alien Hunters."

  "Riff!" Lenora walked around the table and grabbed him. "I've spent years studying that black hole. Years! I can't let you fly inside, to see what's in there, when I can go with you, study and—"

  "We're not going to study it. We're going to blast it to bits." Riff's voice softened. "Lenora, after what happened on Athemes, I . . . I can't let others die. I can't put you and Dee in danger. My crew and I are trained to deal with this. Stay here. Where it's safe. Please."

  "He might be right, sister," Dee said. He pointed at the monitors. The news broadcast had ended, replaced with an episode of Space Galaxy. "Good place to watch some quality programming."

  Lenora sighed, then embraced Riff. "Be careful, you brave, crazy fool. Don't do anything stupid."

  "You mean, aside from flying into a black hole?" He smiled, his arms wrapped around her. "You and Dee are the bright ones. Maybe it's time for the stupid to make a stand. It's my time to shine."

  * * * * *

  With supplies and a full tank of fuel, the Dragon Huntress left the station and entered the deep darkness between the stars.

  Piston and Dee donned space suits, hovered outside the ship, and worked at assembling the new engines—engines that would jolt the ship up a dimension through Euclidian space. While they worked, Riff sat alone on the bridge, playing an old guitar he had picked up at the space station, a scratched acoustic instrument that had seen better days.

  Nova used to sit here to his left, Steel to his right. Both gone. Head lowered, he played "Moonshine Blues" by Bootstrap and the Shoeshine Kid. The same song he used to play at the Blue Strings club back in simpler days. He missed those days so much he ached.

  I left Earth with people that I love . . . and I lost them to the darkness of the cosmos.

  That night, when Riff lay down in bed, he could not sleep. Too many memories. Too much sadness. Too much pain. He lay on his back, awake, gazing up at the dark ceiling, and he didn't know if he'd ever find peace again.

  I miss you, Nova. I miss you, Steel.

  As he lay in shadows, a knock sounded on his door. A moment later, the door creaked open, firelight fell upon him, and Romy tiptoed into the room. She wore purple pajamas, and tears dampened her eyes.

  "Captain?" she whispered. "Did I wake you? I can't sleep."

  "I was awake," Riff said.

  The demon stepped closer. "Can I sleep in your bed tonight? The crew quarters are empty. Piston is still working on the engines, and Giga is on the bridge, and . . . and I'm scared there alone."

  Riff patted the mattress, and Romy climbed into bed beside him. Soon she was snoring, drool dripping down her chin. Riff watched her sleep. When the demon wasn't blabbering, singing, muttering, or chirping away, she seemed almost a precious thing, a dear friend. A soothing presence.

  Thank you for being here, Romy, he thought and stroked her fiery hair. She mumbled in her sleep, wincing, perhaps with pain or memory. Riff kissed her cheek and stroked her hair until her face smoothed, and she slept calmly.

  Before Riff himself drifted off to sleep, he thought that he could feel that presence again, the twin souls he had felt during the funeral. He thought he could almost glimpse gold, almost feel Nova's breath against his neck, almost hear Twig's laughter. He fell asleep and dreamed that they lay here with him, forever flying with him through the darkness.

  * * * * *

  They returned to it at the end.

  As the cosmos unraveled, the Dragon Huntress glided toward the black hole in the center of the cosmos. Toward Yurei. The dark eye. The lair of the queen.

  Gliding here, still many kilometers away, space seemed almost peaceful.

  That peace would soon shatter, Riff knew.

  His remaining crew stood with him on the bridge. Piston hefted his hammer. Romy clutched her pitchfork. Giga stood calmly, her katana slung across her back. They were all who remained upon this ship, and they all stared through the windshield at the black hole. Their destination.

  Giga shifted closer to Riff and slipped her hand into his.

  "Are you ready, sir?"

  No, Riff thought. No, he wasn't ready. How could anyone be ready for this? How could he ask his crew to fly here with him? To enter the darkness?

  He stared at the black hole ahead.

  Yet enter the darkness we will, or the light will forever dim.

  "I've asked you all to fly with me here," Riff said to his crew. "And you all agreed. Out of loyalty. Out of fear for the cosmos. Out of courage. Out of love for those we lost." Pain clutched Riff's chest. "Piston's going to turn on our new engine now, and I'm not sure what will happen. We're going to enter a higher plane of existence, to fly through four dimensions, not only three. Whatever we see, hear, feel—it will overwhelm us. Confuse us. We must be brave, no matter what strangeness we see through this window, no matter how shocking this new reality is."

  "I've seen Piston eat," Romy said. "Nothing can shock me anymore."

  "Why you—" Piston began, blustering, and made to grab the demon. She leaped back, squealing.

  Riff sighed. "Even outside a black hole containing an evil queen and her ghost minions, somebody on the Dragon Huntress is going to bicker. I need you read
y now. Ready to face the darkness. Ready to fight . . . whatever's in there. We're going to fly into Yurei." He clenched his fist. "And we're going to blast our fire onto its queen."

  They looked at him, eyes soft, afraid, yet brave. And he knew they would fly with him to the edge of the cosmos if he asked.

  Piston stepped closer and patted his arm. "We're with you, laddie. Always."

  Romy leaped onto Riff, almost knocking him down, and squeezed him. "I'll always fight with you, Captain. You have my pitchfork. And my teddy bear!"

  Giga only had to look at him, didn't have to say a thing. Riff saw the love and loyalty in her eyes, and he knew that she too would always fight at his side.

  "All right, let's get going!" Piston said. "No time like the present, I always say. Romy, you clod! Join me in the engine room. You can help me calibrate the Euclidean hyper-dimensional warping coils."

  Romy blinked. "I . . . can." She nodded. "Almost positive."

  The pair wandered off the bridge, leaving Riff and Giga alone.

  "We're with you, Captain," Giga whispered, squeezing his hand. "Always. We will all fight for you."

  "Not for me," he said. "For Twig. For Nova. For Steel."

  The rumble of the engines filled the ship. The floor rattled. The hula dancer swayed and bulldog bobbed on the dashboard. Riff's hand tightened around Giga's.

  The black hole loomed outside, twisting, coiling, bulging out like a bubble, staring at them.

  "Euclidian engine heating up, sir!" Piston called through the communicator. "We're entering four dimensions!"

  Riff held his breath, nearly crushing Giga's hand.

  Outside, space changed.

  The stars burst into streaks—not streaming lines like those in hyperspace, blurred as the ship roared by, but the lines of their orbits, coiling across spacetime like a silver cobweb. Thousands of visions of the Dragon Huntress stretched ahead of them, a path of reflections like slides strewn across space. A stone ring flowed around the black hole—the planet Kaperosa stretched across its orbit.