by Adam Moon
“We will use our own,” replied the captain. “But while we’ve been trapped in stasis so that we could pilot this ship in these mechs, they’ve propagated the species, and therefore they’ve evolved ever so slightly. We haven’t. Our pseudo-god needed skilled workers for as long as was required. She couldn’t afford to let us die before we accomplished the mission.”
“How long has she kept you guys in stasis?” Chris imagined it had to be a long time in order for their cousins to out-evolve them.
“She has kept us for a longer amount than a mind is capable of coping with,” the captain said sadly, giving weight to each word.
The first mate shook his head. “Let’s just hope we can trust her. She’s already cost us our very race and pitted us against our brothers for her own gain. I hope it is all worth it.”
The captain said softly, “We went against our people on our own. She had no part in that. That is on us. All of this is our fault. I just hope it bears the fruit we anticipate. If it does, there may be a reconciliation with our people when they realize they were wrong.”
Last Ditch Effort
Admiral Chaybo was furious. They had arrived too late to stop the blocky collector ship.
They’d watched in vain as The Collector had dropped beneath the cloud layer towards the dusty, abandoned outpost planet.
They got several warning pings.
His second in command said, “We made a mistake. There are a dozen ships larger than this one headed our way.”
The Admiral ordered, “Send a nuke to the collector ship’s location quickly, and then let’s get the hell out of here.”
They watched as the nuke launched out into the black of space. Two of the approaching enemy ships saw it and fired, but it was too fast. It rocketed past them and down towards the planet.
But it exploded almost as soon as it hit the atmosphere.
Before the Admiral could ask what had happened, his second in command said, “It was taken out by drones.”
“No way. There’s no way they were that fast.”
“They were, Admiral. We need to get as far away from here as possible.”
“Agreed,” the Admiral said resignedly.
Apprehension
Number Four said to Chris, “When I transfer Samda’s consciousness to a mech, I’ll take a few minutes and see how corrupted your mech is. If a part of the last occupant is still in there, maybe we can reverse the damage.”
“Good,” Chris said. “I was already conflicted when I only had to deal with one mind. Imagine how screwed up I feel now.”
Number four laughed but there was no humor in it. He got back to work landing the ship.
They landed the blocky ship right in the center of an octagonal structure. The layout reminded Chris of the Pentagon in Washington D.C. except that it was easily three times as big around and five times higher. The walls were made of stone or brick, which surprised Chris. He had hoped for something a little more space-aged and advanced.
As far as he could tell, there was nothing on this dusty planet besides the single building. There were no outlying structures, or cultivated land or any signs of ingress and egress. It looked like the entire populace was contained in one building.
Number Four changed the view on the monitor to show approaching figures coming to greet the new arrivals, and sure enough, they were all wearing mechanized suits.
The captain said, “Have someone bring a mech aboard for Samda and then open the loading bay doors.”
Chris felt Samda slip her meaty hand around the end of one of his metallic tentacles. Had it not looked so hideous, he would’ve thought it was sweet.
But she wasn’t doing it to show affection, she was doing it because she was afraid of having her mind sucked out and transplanted into a piece of alien technology. She was afraid of the god-like creature they were about to meet. And she was afraid of the ramifications of the experiment they were about to conduct.
And now that Chris thought about it, he was scared too. This could be the end of the journey for him. He didn’t know if he could trust the captain to take him home after the experiment was over, and that time was quickly approaching. What would become of him if they decided he wasn’t worth the effort of returning him home or keeping him alive?
They heard a loud hiss as the atmosphere somewhere else on the ship normalized.
The captain said to his number four, “As soon as you’re done with the transfer, bring these two down to the loading bay.”
To his first mate he said, “Let’s go and see just how well they took care of our bodies during our long absence.” There was a hint of trepidation to his tone.
Robot Samda
A few minutes after Number Four brought them to the transfer room to switch Samda’s consciousness into a mechanized unit, the first mate brought in an empty mech on a wheeled cart. He and Number Four hefted it into the dock and connected the cables to it.
Samda was made to lie down on the circular table and Chris hoped and prayed she’d make the same mistake he had and would start to strip naked, but apparently she was a lot smarter than he was.
Number Four started to fuss with his dials and monitors as the first mate left them to get on with it.
A circular disc, larger than the one used on Chris, was lowered into place, and a second later it made a loud popping noise and flashed brightly, like it had emitted some type of electrical discharge. Chris knew it wasn’t an electrical spark though. It was something exotic and alien enough to steal someone’s mind.
Samda let out a long breath and her chest failed to rise.
Number Four quickly ran to her and started to hook up breathing apparatus and IV’s. When he was satisfied that she was alive and well, he walked to the still unmoving mech.
He reached up and pulled a cord that hung on the right hand side. The mech shuddered and vibrated. It tried to turn its head this way and that, but it was still secured in the dock.
Number Four unhooked the cables and hoses and then hit a button that released the unit. It fell to its feet with a thud.
Samda’s mech body walked up to Chris and said, “This isn’t so bad, Earthman.” Samda waved her many tentacled arms around and said, “I actually like it.”
Chris might have joined in her joy if not for the fact that his own body was nowhere in sight. Before he could ask what they’d done with it, Number Four ushered him into the dock and hooked him up to the swinging cables.
He would have asked about the absence of his body, but he knew now was a bad time. What if they’d destroyed it? If he brought up his suspicions now, Number Four might decide to just scrub him right out of his mech to avoid the hassle of dealing with his nonsense. It seemed like something they would do. He could only hope his body had simply been moved to make way for Samda’s, but until he saw it for himself, it was all speculation.
Before he had a chance to truly panic, his mind went blank and his vision shut down.
Worried About Nothing
Samda’s mechanical face greeted him when he woke up.
She said jovially, “It turned out that your unit was completely clean when you went into it. Your aggression was all your own. Now you have no excuses for your behavior.” She laughed and punched him in the chest lightly.
He enjoyed her levity but he preferred it when she was flesh and blood. He was going to miss seeing her oversized but uniquely beautiful body.
Her once gorgeous face had been replaced with a mass of metal, her perfectly alien eyes with a single lens.
He realized then just how lonely he was, how lonely he’d always been. But he also knew how ridiculous it was for him to lust after an alien three times his size.
Number Four dampened her upbeat spirits with, “Enough of this crap. We’ve got a lot of work to do and we’ve already wasted enough time on you two.”
He hit the release button hard and Chris fell on the floor.
Number Four said, “Follow me, and if you get asked any questions, make
sure to defer to one of us. I know the captain made a snap decision to put each of you in a suit, but that doesn’t mean it was the right decision. He could be punished if it displeases her. Just keep your heads down and do what I do.”
Chris looked at Samda. He would’ve raised his eyebrows if he had any.
She cocked her head to the side and he guessed that meant she was wary of what awaited them.
Samda followed Number Four and Chris left the room last, still contemplating just what had happened to his body.
Cargo
Number Four led them along corridor after corridor, traveling downward as they reached the ends of each. It was like a maze but in three dimensions. Chris would have done anything to just climb down a single ladder to the bottom, but the design of the ship was flawed, so they had to snake forwards and backwards to keep moving down.
He was pleasantly surprised that he didn’t get winded, because the idea of showing weakness in front of Samda unnerved him. She would’ve made fun of him and lost what little respect he’d earned from his display with the turret guns.
He realized he shouldn’t care so much what she thought of him. She was an alien. But he’d grown fond of her. He liked her and he wanted her to like him in return.
By the time they reached the cavernous underbelly of the ship, there was too much activity for Chris to adequately wrap his mind around. Stasis pods, with their occupants still inside, were appearing at the mouths of fat plastic tubes. The first mate must have been unhooking them and sending them down the chutes because he was nowhere to be seen.
The in-feed end of the tubes must’ve been hidden, because Chris couldn’t recall ever seeing them. Then again, there was probably a lot on the ship he’d never seen or else he’d simply dismissed as inconsequential because he didn’t recognize it for what it was.
The captain was directing the activity in the loading bay to mechanized units, but they were different, cleaner than the ones they used on the ship. And there were at least a hundred of them.
The mechs hefted the pods and walked them out of the ship, across the octagonal courtyard, and then into what looked like a hangar bay inside the building.
The captain beckoned Chris and Samda over and said, “Apparently the Grays tracked us here and tried to attack, but don’t worry, they were chased off. We’re safe from them here.”
Samda and Chris looked at each other. Chris said, “It’s nice to finally be safe.”
Samda agreed.
The captain nodded his agreement too. He pointed at the bustling workers. “When a pod arrives, pick it up and take it into that building. There’s no rhyme or reason to how we’re storing them right now, so just find an empty spot to dump them and come back to the ship for the next one.”
Chris started to ask where his own body was, but the captain must have anticipated the question, because he interrupted, “Your body was put into stasis. I didn’t tell you because I know you have reservations about the process. You’ve already been offloaded.”
That was an immense weight off of Chris’ shoulders, despite the fact that his body was in stasis and out of his sight. He was just glad it was safe.
Samda opened her mouth to speak but the captain interrupted her too. “Your body will go into stasis too, and then it’ll be sent down here. There’s nothing to worry about. Now get to work and keep your noses clean.”
Chris followed Samda over to one of the tubes and they waited for a stasis pod to drop out. When it did, they spent several seconds looking over the occupant. The creature was jet black and oily-looking with a thin, mangled body, like a squashed spider, but as big as a man. It had no genitalia that Chris could discern, and no eyes or ears either. But what it lacked in those areas it made up for with a huge mouth overcrowded with razor sharp teeth, furry and still caked in the blood of its last victim.
Samda pulled the pod free of the chute and laid it flat. She picked an end up, so Chris grabbed the other end and followed her down the ramp and into the hangar bay of the building.
They must have passed two dozen mech units as they went, but their occupants were slaves to the pseudo-god and paid them no attention. Chris was glad for their lack of enthusiasm. It meant he didn’t have to answer any awkward questions. It meant they were being treated as equals for the time being.
The room they were dumping the pods in was huge and bare, besides the growing piles of stasis pods. The floor was earthen and the walls were too. The structure was simply functional with no adornments or creature comforts. The walls were unpainted and crumbling at the base here and there. It was exactly the opposite of what he might have expected.
He sure hoped the rest of the octagonal structure was more interesting, or at least more advanced.
Samda was already walking back into the ship before he realized he was stalling, making himself stand out against the busy workers. He caught up to her in time to grab the next pod already waiting for them. He had no idea how many creatures were in stasis aboard the ship, but he had a feeling this was going to be a long, hard day of work.
He looked back over his shoulder at the huge piles of pods in the cavernous hangar bay. His own pod was under there somewhere. It was an odd feeling, not knowing exactly where his body was.
The False God
They were all milling around inside the huge room in the octagonal structure now that the last pod had been offloaded.
The captain called him and Samda over. “She’ll arrive shortly. I’ve just heard terrible reports that she’s gone insane in the time that we’ve been away on our mission. I always knew she was psychotic, but apparently she’s taken it to the next level lately. If she asks who you are, tell her. At the worst, I’ll be reprimanded for using aliens in our mechs, but when I explain the circumstances she’ll hopefully understand why it was necessary.”
If Chris didn’t know any better he’d think the captain was panicking. He wondered if the almost-god really warranted such fear.
Before his mind wandered too far, a general hush came over the hangar. The mechs at the far end of the room bowed their heads one by one and stepped backwards to make way for their slave master.
She was smaller than they were. In fact, she was probably smaller than a regular Earth woman. She was humanoid in appearance. Chris was pleased to see that. It meant that humanoid creatures were not the lowliest of alien life forms since this god was a humanoid.
Her skin was mottled and bare. She was a tan color with faint green and red smudges here and there. She had tiny scales that glinted under the false light.
She had two eyes and a mouth just like a human, but hers were just slightly off. Her eyes were twice as large as his. Her lips were purple and thin. Glaringly different: she had no nose, just a flat stretch of skin in its place, no breasts or nipples, and her navel was absent. Her arms were longer and thinner than a human’s and she only had two fingers on each hand with an opposable thumb on each. He couldn’t see any fingernails.
Her legs were long and thin too, for her body size, but they moved in an odd, fluid way, like she had multiple knee joints on each. Chris tried to focus and see if she had a vagina, but it was impossible for him to tell since his body was so tall, towering over her.
What she lacked in size she made up for in confidence. She had an air of arrogance about her that was palpable.
As she came closer, Chris tensed. There was an ominous quality to her that was out of place given that she was so small compared to everyone else.
She stopped at Chris and Samda and said, “This wasn’t planned for. Captain, explain why there are alien life forms residing inside my mechanized suits please.”
The captain stepped forward and bowed his head. “Number Three was lost during an attack by the Grays. We needed to fill the suit so we could fight back. An Earth-man is inside mech number three right now.”
The small god creature wrinkled her brow in annoyance at the mention of Chris’ race. “I thought humans were only to be scouted. I’ll assume they w
ere advanced enough to be included by the time you arrived at Earth.”
“That is correct. They’ve progressed faster than we expected so I took one just in case it was needed. There are other creatures that are of similar undecided status. We thought it prudent to err on the side of caution.”
“Very good, Captain. What is inside this one then?” She tapped on Samda’s metal thigh.
“That is another creature that we included just in case. Her race had managed semi-advanced space flight by the time we got there. The Grays wiped out her entire planet. We found this one aboard a ship, the last of her kind. I put her in a mech to help us offload the cargo. I apologize if I’ve made an error in judgment.”
The female god paused for a frightening few seconds and finally said, “As always, your judgment is impeccable, Captain. Good work. I’m sorry to hear that you lost your number three during the mission.”
“Thank you, miss.” The captain kept his head bowed as he took a step backwards.
The god looked over Chris and Samda one last time and then moved on down the line.
Once she’d walked the length of the hangar, she turned and said in a booming voice, “Numbers eleven through thirty-five stay here to help categorize the specimens. The rest of you will return to your barracks until the experiment is ready.”
Most of the mechs walked towards the back of the hangar. The captain ushered Samda and Chris that way too.
Overdue
Reunion
As they walked, a couple of mechs made their way towards the captain. One of them conspiratorially said to him, “It’s good to have you back. How was the trip?”
“It was a long one, but at least I got to get away for awhile. How were things here?”