She finally stopped tugging the trigger and she burst into tears.
The creature didn’t move. She slowly righted herself and rolled onto her knees.
“LIARA!” Krahm shouted approaching.
Her vision was sliding around as she looked up and spotted Krahm approaching. The alien was dressed in a long brown coat and was hurrying towards her. His small ship was hovering in the air above him. It wasn’t anywhere near as futuristic as she’d anticipated. It was bulky, ugly and bulbous. Crafted from some green steel that looked like it had been painted with algae. It was quickly lost into a rain cloud.
“LIARA! Are you okay?”
She was wheezing but she managed to turn the gun on him.
“You LIED to me!” She roared.
He froze on the spot, his hands instantly raising in surrender.
“I don’t understand-”
“-The clone! Why didn’t you tell me about the clone? You said it was just me… You didn’t tell me about her! Why did you take her?”
Krahm faltered. Slowly he lowered his arms.
“Liara please…” he pleaded.
She shook her head angrily.
“You fucking lied to me…” she growled.
“Liara please. I’m sorry. We took her because-” a clap of thunder interrupted him. A surprisingly brutal carpet of rain landed heavily on the desk. It felt like an ocean had just been thrown upon them.
“…Your DNA. That’s why we took her. The Arafoids, they perfected the ratio with their number Nines…”
She didn’t understand what that had to do with anything. She couldn’t think much beyond the anger burning in her chest. If the gun hadn’t been empty she might have unloaded a bullet in Krahm.
“…We thought maybe the DNA of the Nine would help us understand the Xeed… The Arafoids unlocked your genetic code, she was the perfect candidate…”
‘Perfect candidate’ angered her more. Yet again she had been debased to a statistic, to an experiment in a lab. It occurred to her that it had been her greatest fear back on Earth and here she was on the receiving end of it for a second time. Liara had stopped being a human, she had become a genetic mystery. A mysterious artefact of biology.
The tomb raider had become the prized relic.
Jesus… The irony in that…
Krahm stepped forward.
“I’m sorry, I truly am. Please understand that it changes nothing…”
It had changed everything. The fragile trust she had in the Tethu was lost. He had betrayed her, in the pursuit of science. He wasn’t that different from the Fours.
Maybe he was even worse.
“Liara please. Trust me…”
She angrily turned her head away. She coughed and her hand came away bloody.
She was running out of time.
“Let me heal you… Then we’ll do whatever you want me to do. I’ll take you home… If that’s what you want…”
“How can I know that I can trust you?”
He dropped his head in defeat.
“…Because I could’ve left you to die back on Nillem and I didn’t… I could’ve let you die in the spire and I didn’t…”
She coughed again.
He closed in on the Progenmorph.
It made her focus on it. She realised she’d been firing some type of cryogenic rounds into the monster. Its chest was filled with bullet holes that were white with ice and frozen solid.
Her final bullet had buried itself in its head.
It twitched as Krahm poked it.
It wasn’t dead. She could see its shallow breaths. She’d merely disabled it.
She wasn’t particularly surprised. This creature had been unstoppable every step of her way, why would it stop now?
“…What are you doing?” She asked against the sudden roar of the weather.
He had removed some strange device from his coat. It took her a few moments to realised he was unfolding it, then a few more moments to identify it as a net.
“…Are you kidding?”
Krahm slowly turned his head towards her.
She didn’t give him chance to justify himself. “…That thing just wiped out everyone on the spire. You want to package it up? Study it?”
“Think of the things we could learn!” Krahm protested.
Liara laughed rhetorically. It was ironic, she was a million miles away from Earth and she was still faced with fucking stupidity.
“…You really think you can contain it? That you can control it? I thought you were cleverer than this…” She shook her head.
“Liara!-”
“-No. That thing will wipe out your entire race! Is that the price you’re willing to pay?” she staggered to her feet. She baulked and a little blood pooled in her mouth. She spat it onto the deck.
“Throw it into the ocean Krahm. Do the right thing,” she urged.
He looked from her to the Progenmorph.
She was right and it ashamed him to admit it.
“This…” she slipped the data drive free and held it out to him. “…this is the data you need. Kill that thing or I throw this in the ocean... If it gets loose in the galaxy who knows what destruction it will cause…”
She dropped to one knee.
Blood was pooling in her mouth again.
She opened her mouth and it poured out in a long stream of crimson.
The world was spinning around her, spinning faster and faster. Her vision was blurring.
She dropped to her front unable to stay upright any longer. A few seconds later she felt Krahm’s hands scoop her up. She was defenceless and weak. There was no resistance left in her. He hurried across the deck, his footing precarious on the rain sodden metal.
He stood underneath his ship.
The spire groaned and began buckling under foot.
He looked up and managed to press the button on his bracelet simultaneously.
He dared a glance back.
The ship pulled him into the air just as the spire crumbled inwards. The immobile Progenmorph slid into the centre of the deck and was quickly crushed between several sheets of metal. Within seconds the spire disappeared into the stormy sea.
A few seconds later he was aboard his ship.
He stepped through the transportation panel and hurried through the bay. He took the first left, slamming into the infirmary he’d fashioned from the weapon locker.
She had stopped breathing. Her lungs had completely dissolved.
He kicked the stasis pod open, throwing her roughly inside it. She flopped like a heavy rag doll. He took hold of the lid and began to drag it closed.
He spotted the disk drive.
He plucked it free and slammed the lid closed. He then turned his attention to the console he’d set up. He began to furiously type into it, activating the rejuvenating process. It required a full specimen scan. He initiated it.
He was aware that he was running out of time. If she wasn’t suspended quickly enough and she deteriorated past the point of return… then it was all in vain. There was only so far from the brink of death he could bring her back.
The scan began. An orange laser began to sweep up her body.
He twitched impatiently.
Come on!
He began to pace nervously.
The scan was at 50%.
Anything less than 30% vitality meant she was dead. The damage would be irreparable.
He couldn’t contain his nervous energy. He paced to the nearby counter in his cramped little quarters and deposited the data drive.
He couldn’t explain why he wanted her to survive. There was very little rational reason behind it, yet he was praying she would pull through. She had survived so much, it would be unfair to die now. Not now when she could share the incredible journey ahead with him. He knew her memories, knew the unknown answers of the universe propelled her. Now was the ultimate prize.
The scan read 93%.
It was nearly done. He approached the console.
96%.
He looked to her. She would’ve looked serene and peaceful if it wasn’t for the dried river of blood down her chin.
“Come on!” he urged aloud in her voice. The use of English was unexpected, it was not his mother tongue.
The scan read 100%.
It pinged.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
“Just this way Sir,” the guard ushered him away from the security point. He looked confused for a second before he followed him. He had deposited his mobile phone and every single metallic item in the security box behind him. The guard who took the possessions from him had smiled reassuringly but he didn’t seem to understand just how naked Adam felt. In the modern world it was strange to be so… disconnected…
He followed the guard down the corridor and passed through a series of locked doors. They activated with a key card only. The guard was dressed in a grey uniform with dazzingly shiny black shoes. He was attractive but pretty nondescript. Tanned, dark hair, beard. Handsome but not eye-snaggingly so.
The corridors Adam was being led down were glaringly bright. They were whitewashed and framed on both sides with frosted glass. He felt a little disorientated, which he suspected was probably part of the plan. They turned down yet another corridor.
The guard acknowledged another guard as they passed. A small polite nod of the head.
Adam had no idea what he was doing here.
Why was he here?
He thought of the letter he’d received out of the blue. A vague invitation. Invitation to the middle of the country, a rare chance to visit the headquarters of a giant research corporation. It had tickled his curiosity as much as it alarmed him. Any questions he had were ignored, the reasons of his requested presence directly avoided.
To add to the mystery surrounding the invite he was required to sign an advanced disclosure form. He’d been spooked enough to read the small print and was further alarmed when he found the clause that should he break the agreement there would be ‘extreme consequences’. That wasn’t the type of terminology for just a lawsuit.
Why had this giant corporation showed an interest in him?
Why did it reek of conspiracy at a governmental level?
He was dressed smartly; a grey dinner jacket, blue jeans and a red plaid shirt. He’d even polished his shoes. His blonde hair was cut, freshly trimmed only a few days prior. His round and soft face had hardened over the years. His lips and nose plumping out as he put on a little weight. The thirties had finally slowed his metabolism and he had to be more careful with what he ate.
He ran a sweaty palm through his hair as he was gestured into a room. He entered it and found himself in a sort of dining room. It was a large hall filled with row after row of white furniture. Long white tables, neat square white chairs. The plastic floor tiles were brilliant white, the floors and walls too. It was impossibly white. Either this corporation had figured out the formula for perfect whites or had one hell of a cleaning bill.
The guard shut the door behind him but Adam was distracted.
The longest wall of the room was glass. The other side held his attention.
His jaw dropped open and every word in his mind evaporated.
Playing a game of chase on a manicured green lawn, enclosed within colossal high walls, was a strange white creature and a human girl. The white creature was tall. Pale, like a ghost. It was humanoid, yet distinctly not human. It had large black eyes, yet lacked a nose and visible ears. It was completely hairless except for three silver braids framing either side of its face. It was smiling and playing with the girl.
He was looking at an alien.
The rumours were true.
The internet had been awash with rumours ever since the unknown object crashed into the English channel. Conspiracies were adamant that aliens had arrived on Earth again.
There was a giant suspicion that the English government had concealed all the evidence.
He was looking at irrefutable proof.
It looked a little like the blue ones that had invaded Earth years ago. The mysterious and violent blue monsters that suddenly appeared one day. Piercing the ground in their bullet-like pods. The images of these four armed extraterrestrial invaders had changed the world irreversibly. Suddenly humans knew they weren’t alone. It changed everything.
There should’ve been a renewed focus on world peace but it only brought out the worst in the worst kind of people. America declared intergalactic war, the Chinese severed themselves from the world and Russia launched a platoon of rockets into space. The aliens upended the tea table for sure.
Very few understood why they came to Earth though.
Even fewer noticed that Liara Nicholson was missing.
She’d been the one who’d kicked the hornet’s nest. She’d pissed them off and they’d come for her. Or the baby.
It was the biggest question mark in his life. What had happened to her? Where had she gone?
Sometimes he found himself staring up at the stars wondering where she was.
Was she on the other side of the stars?
He would often muse how desperate and useless he felt. She was lost to him and he would never be able to change that. He’d save her from the mountain but this time… this time he had been powerless.
He stopped in front of the glass door and watched the alien chase the girl joyously. Suddenly his conspiracy suspicions were confirmed. The ‘corporation’ that invited him here wasn’t really a corporation but rather a shell for MI6. M-I-6... He stewed on that revelation deeply.
It still didn’t explain why he had been summoned. What did they want from him? He had no more answers to give than he had before. No insight into the aliens, he only knew what Liara had shared. As he watched this new alien life play before him he realised that he knew significantly less than before. Why was this alien white?
The alien caught the girl and she shrieked in a fit of laughter. To see them frolic in the sunshine was the perfect picture of what life should be.
Humans and aliens coexisting happily…
“Adam?”
It was a voice that took him back 6 years.
His breath caught and he slowly pivoted.
She slowed her approach.
His face went as white as the room they were stood in.
“L-L-Liara…” he finally exhaled.
She smiled warmly.
“Hey,” she greeted.
She was as beautiful as she always had been. Pale, tall and bewitching to the eye. Her plump lips curled up in a small curve. Her slim and shapely face looked unmarked by time. Her skin looked soft. Her long brunette hair was fashioned into a pretty braid down the side of her head. It trailed down to her hip. She was wearing a pretty floral dress; white with red flowers. It stopped mid-thigh revealing slender naked legs. She was barefoot.
He groped for a nearby chair and took it. He felt faint.
She took the seat opposite and gently sat down. Her green eyes focused on him. He was blown away. She was back… But how…?
“…You’re?” he stammered.
“…Alive?” She finished for him.
He nodded weakly.
Her smile thinned on her lips and her gaze drifted from him to outside.
“I am…”
“What happened to you?”
Her gaze didn’t return to him. The smile dropped slowly off her face.
“…I was kidnapped,” slowly her gaze shifted back to him. He shivered.
“…By the aliens?”
“By Fours… That’s what they’re called.”
He nodded slowly, his face slowly melted into confusion.
“…I don’t know the full facts of what happened. I was in stasis. But Chrys,” her head gestured to the white alien in the garden, “told me what had happened.”
Adam turned his attention back to the alien. He was surprised it had a name. A human name.
“I was cloned. Well, cloned several times. The Fours were trying to use me as a sort of surrogate womb for the
ir kind…”
Adam turned his attention back to her. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t know where to begin. She let him have a moment to catch up with himself. She could see his mind had been blown to millions of pieces in the last few minutes. Her attention trailed down him. He looked older, greyer. A little plumper too.
His sense of dress was impeccable though, he’d finally ditched the god-awful elbow pads. She noticed the wedding ring.
“…Womb?”
“…The Fours were sterile. They couldn’t bear children. So they used me…” her disengaged tone unnerved him. It was hard for her to feel connected to these events. They were accounts of a time she had no place in, yet she was explicitly involved in. So many things had happened while she slept and she played no part in them. She remembered being abducted and then nothing until being woken on a strange ship surrounded by a new race of aliens and humans. Twos. The downtrodden aliens betrayed by the Fours.
“A clone of mine put an end to it…” she felt conflicted by the fact. She felt simultaneously proud yet also indifferent. She had been disturbed to learn that the clone had Four DNA infused into her genetic code. But nothing compared to the knowledge that she’d been cloned and modified in a factory for the sole purpose of carrying alien embryos. The extent of violation was deep. All while she was sleeping… So unaware…
“…How did you?”
She didn’t understand what he was asking. “Come home?”
He nodded.
“I was found on a ship left behind by a race of aliens called the Tethu.”
“There’s more aliens?”
“There’s galaxies upon galaxies of them…”
Adam was the visible depiction of all the emotions she’d experienced upon learning all this herself.
“We came to Earth on a spaceship. About six months ago…”
It confirmed the unidentified crash the English government had concealed.
“…It’s been six years…” he whispered. He couldn’t believe she was back in his life after six long years of mystery. It was a surreal moment and his mind was spinning dizzily.
She nodded.
“I see you’re married,” she pointed to the ring. She raised a small smile. She hoped it appeared it sincere, though she wasn’t sure it was. She didn’t know how to feel. Part of her felt betrayed that he had moved on, yet part of her felt happy for him. It was hard to comprehend how much time she’d spent in stasis and then travelling across space. For her it felt like only a few months had passed, a mere blink between chapters. For him, he’d lived for six long years…
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