Earth Vs. Aliens (Aliens Series 1)

by T. Jackson King

  Menoma moved closer to the table edge, but did not sit on the low bench that Jack now saw lay at the apex end of the table. “You are perceptive, to link those single blip pulses to me.”

  Jack smiled widely, showing his white teeth. “How else could you gain the battle results which you later sold to other Hunt competitors? Like the Gyklang?”

  “Correct.” The cheetah-leopard stretched wide his forearms, curled his tail, then squatted his muscular bottom on his bench. “You and yours may be seated, or stand as you wish.”

  “Captain Akemi, please sit at my left. Combat Commander Maureen, please sit at my right. Minna and everyone else, find a bench seat that pleases you.” Jack gestured toward the Alien. “And Ignacio, put the cold locker at the end of this table, near Manager Menoma.”

  The Alien CEO tolerated Ignacio’s close approach, his Alien eyes never leaving Jack’s face. “Your trade goods have drawn some interest, my hall monitor reports.”

  “The locker contains what we described to your Greeter, one Howler. What is the price of our admission to your presence here?”

  “Perceptive again.” Menoma gave him an imitation human grin. White canines filled a carnivore narrow mouth, even though the teeth were stubby like those of a cheetah. “Five kilograms of elk meat, ten kilograms of cow meat, one disk of whale songs, and five rubies. As you can see from my clothing, we HikHikSot have an affection for red gems.”

  Jack had noticed that the chest straps which ran up and over Menoma’s shoulders were studded with inlaid faceted rubies. They were large, each a carat or bigger. “Acceptable. Ignacio, please remove meat from the cold locker until the amounts demanded are left inside the locker. It will stay here. Commander Maureen, please take five rubies from your backpack and place them on the table beside the cold locker. Along with the whale song disk.”

  Maureen stood up from her bench, her movements lithe and deadly. She pulled her pack around to her front as she faced Menoma, opened it, looked down, pulled out the rubies and disk, then walked slowly past Ignacio who sat on the right side of the triangle table, on the bench closest to Menoma. Their Irish veteran laid the rubies and disk on the table in view of Menoma, then walked backwards to where she had been seated next to him. She sat, her gaze still fixed on the Alien CEO.

  Menoma glanced briefly at the trade items paid for their admission to see him, then looked back to him. “Captain Jack Munroe of the ship Uhuru, ask your questions.”

  Would he get truthful answers? Then again, what point was there in the Alien lying to him when it thought it was in control of this encounter. Putting on his poker face, he spoke.

  “When was this base created? And why?”

  Menoma blinked once, yellow eyelashes moving quickly. “In your year 2076, when this large ice ball was at perihelion closeness to your Sol star. My ship and my people were the first to discover your system. We knew other Hunters of the Great Dark would arrive to claim your system for their Hunt territory. So we established this base.”

  Jack nodded slowly. “Is your colony ship among the twelve now parked in distant orbit?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  Menoma lifted his forearms and griped his chest straps. Like Howler the hands had four clawed fingers, one of which was a thumb. The claws were black as space. “Because I sent our colony ship back home.”

  “Where is home?”

  The Alien CEO tilted its head, golden yellow eyes scanning all of Jack that could be seen. “It matters not that you know, since you humans lack what you call FTL stardrive. The home star system of the HikHikSot is the place you call Delta Boötis B, a G0V yellow star of the main sequence. It lies about 121 of your light years from Sol. Your . . . pilot Elaine Munroe can provide you with further astronomical data on it.”

  Shit. The Alien knew every detail of his crew. And likely every detail of other ship crews that had been broadcast on AV and radio. Which raised a point. “What method do you use to communicate among predator ships, and with your base here? We have not detected any laser, maser or radio transmissions emanating from any of the competitor ships we have encountered.”

  “That is because your science, while advancing quickly, is still primitive,” Menoma said huskily. “We HikHikSot and every other predator who travels the Great Dark talk among ourselves using modulated neutrino emissions. As your Drive Engineer Max Piakowski has perhaps told you, neutrinos pass through anything. And their shifting from one neutrino state to another can be artificially manipulated. Which is what we do.”

  Jack nodded slowly. Perhaps the flat-topped cylinder they had recovered from the Hackmot ship could be made to work as a neutrino communicator for his fleet. “Tell me about this interstellar society where only predators travel among the stars. When did it begin and how far is it spread within this galaxy?”

  “You realize your questions are the obvious ones, and have not the value already paid to me in trade goods?” Jack kept silent, but did not move his gaze from Menoma. “As you wish. Perhaps the Rizen told you this when first they encountered your other Uhuru ship. Only predators travel star to star, never the herbivores. Who are the subject peoples we claim as part of our Hunt territories.”

  “And?” he prompted.

  “Our culture began three thousand of your Earth years ago, in a distant part of what you call Orion Arm,” Menoma said. “It covers most of Orion Arm. While a few predator ships have visited the nearby Carina-Sagittarius Arm, none have claimed territory in that arm. We have plenty of populated stars in this arm.”

  Jack felt both encouraged and depressed. “You mention subject peoples. Where are the closest stars with such peoples?”

  Menoma bared his teeth again. “You cannot hope to join with our subject peoples, the way your Earth nations pretend to join together in this United Nations creation.”

  “I ask out of curiosity. Where are the closest subject peoples? We have long debated which stars held life-bearing planets.”

  “They are not far away,” Menoma throat-coughed. “One subject people is located in the system you have labeled Epsilon Eridani, a bit more than ten light years from Sol. The next closest people live in Omicron2 Eridani system, about sixteen light years distant.”

  Jack nodded slowly. “Do the HikHikSot lead this predator culture?”

  “No one leads!” Menoma said in a tone that sounded angry-hungry. “We are each predators. We compete for territory. We claim territory. We defend our territory with violence, whenever a new predator species is foolish enough to force entry into one of our systems.” It paused, licked its teeth with a pink tongue, then gave a growl. “But we all obey the Rules by which a new territory is competed for.”

  Jack grinned, wondering if his stubby white teeth had any effect on the Alien. “Why did you set up this Watering Hole base? Rather than take over Sol system since you were first to arrive?”

  Menoma coughed, then wheezed. “You heard the reason when the Rizen challenged you. My devices recorded every detail of that first Challenge battle. But in your time 2076 you Humans had not yet traveled beyond the world you call Pluto, which is your outermost planet that has cleared its orbital pathway of all debris and minor bodies.”

  Jack recalled that Pluto had been downgraded to a dwarf planet status at the start of the current century. Why he had no idea. But this Alien clearly saw Pluto as meeting the Rules followed by these interstellar predators. “So you waited until we sent exploration vessels into the Kuiper Belt. But why did you HikHikSot not Challenge us first? And why did you send your colony ship back home?”

  Menoma let go of his chest straps, placed his clawed hands on the table top and leaned forward as if ready to spring across ten meters and sink teeth into Jack. “Because we arrived just after your Belter Rebellion ended. This Unity society that rules your Earth had many armed combat ships patrolling your system. I realized that mounting a Challenge to you humans, even a simple one-to-one personal combat Challenge, would not be as easy as at other star syste
ms. So I created this base. Let the other predators here waste ships and lives in Challenge to you and your seven ships. Eventually your Unity authority will contact us and beg for peace. We HikHikSot will agree to peace. In return for adding Sol system to our Hunt territory!”

  Jack had never encountered a human more sleazy, sneaky and manipulative than this Menoma. The cheetah-leopard Alien would let other social predators fight for its eventual benefit, then it would claim Sol ownership from a frightened Unity government. Which might even now have sent a ship out to investigate the thermonuke explosion that had happened during their battle with the lizardy Hackmot at comet 1999 DG8. Below the table he felt Maureen reach out and touch his right leg. As if to let him know she was ready for battle. The slight sound of Akemi pulling a few centimeters of her katana from its sheath told him she too was ready to confront Menoma. But he was not ready. Instead, it was time to reduce the odds against humanity.

  “Manager Menoma, what you do with other Aliens is your business. I care not,” Jack said calmly. He lifted his arms and folded his hands together on the cold metal table. Leaning forward, he ground his teeth. “But we humans are the apex predator of Sol system. No lifeform on our planet has survived our arrival at the peak of the planet’s foodchain. As you perhaps know from AV programs on the extinction of giant animals just after the arrival of humans in what we call North America.” He paused, his peripheral vision telling him that Kasun, Aashman, Júlia, Ignacio, Minna, Akemi and Maureen all now watched him. Rather than Menoma. “There are twelve predator species now present on the outer edge of our system, each hoping to gain Sol as part of their Hunt territory. Thirteen when I include you HikHikSot. Well, none of you will win any Challenge against us!”

  Menoma’s white-tufted tail whipped side to side. It still leaned forward as if ready to pounce. “Oh? Just how do you plan to defeat all of us, when your own Unity culture wishes to believe we visitors are actually . . . nonviolent, peaceful and ready to hand you technology you have yet to discover?”

  The Alien was correct about the Communitarian delusion which now ruled Earth and its outposts. Except for the Belt. “We humans change our cultures nearly as often as we change our clothes. What you assume to occur will not occur.”

  Menoma stood up and hop-walked back a meter. “You are seven ships. Your Unity is many more. Why should my people, or those outside in the Gathering Hall, fear you? Success in a few Challenge battles is not permanent success.”

  “True.” Jack stood up and backed away from the table edge, finger-talking to his fellows to do the same. Ignacio gathered up the loose meat packets, stuffed them into his backpack, and backpedaled toward where Jack and his other captains now clustered. “You will learn about how I aim to achieve permanent success once we all rejoin our ships in orbit.”

  Menoma’s golden yellow eyes scanned them all, then refixed on Jack. “That assumes you survive your crossing of the hall to the elevator that brought you here from the surface. The winged Krisot competitors may attack you as you leave here. Even if you do return to your ships, the Rule of the Watering Hole is that no ship engages in species-on-species Challenges while in orbit. Non-combat is the function of watering holes among you Earth animals.”

  “True.” Jack couldn’t resist a final parting shot. “But we could take care of you HikHikSot right now. By shooting you.” He put his right hand on the butt of his revolver.

  Menoma the cheetah-leopard blurred as it jumped up onto the table. From its shoulders now pointed two laser tubes. They glowed with energy. The Alien CEO grinned toothily. “Or I could kill all of you Humans right now.”

  Akemi had pulled her katana and Maureen had both her revolvers out and pointing in the second it had taken the Alien creature to move to the offense. Jack held up both hands palm outward. “No need. Once we dispatch the other predators in orbit you HikHikSot will have no more customers for your data modules and Earth spy work. Perhaps you will leave peacefully. And you . . . Howler said the rules are that no personal energy weapons were allowed in the Gathering Hall.”

  Menoma snarled, its stance still a forward lean as if it might pounce rather than use tech to harm Jack and his allies. “That rule only applies to other predators. Not to we HikHikSot. This is our base. Our watering hole. We control everything that happens on and about Sedna!”

  To Jack’s sides his people had spread out. There was no way this Menoma could kill them all with his two shoulder lasers. Still holding his hands upright, Jack stepped back slowly. “Perhaps you do. We leave now. But we will make a broadcast to you and to all predators before our ships leave orbit.”

  Menoma eyed his spread out people, then came back to Jack. “You humans are every bit as strange and violent as your television shows depict! Leave! And return not to Sedna!”

  “We leave,” Jack said, backing away slowly as his other captains formed a cordon about him. “May you enjoy your elk meat. It could be your last meal.”

  “Human!”

  A green laser beam shot from Menoma’s right shoulder to scorch the floor in front of his feet.

  “Blam!”

  Maureen’s revolver shot dinged off the rear wall of the triangular chamber. He knew that she had intentionally missed Menoma. Whose mouth now showed white flecks, as if he ached to take a bite out of a human. Any human.

  “Akemi, tap the contact plate once, then lead us out into the Gathering Hall. Watch out for these Krisot avians! They looked eager to attack when we came to the green portal.”

  Behind Jack he heard a whistle as the portal door rose up. The sounds of dozens of Alien voices echoed within Menoma’s room. He stepped back over the portal threshold, still facing the Alien Manager. The second the portal dropped down he pulled Old Roy and faced forward.

  Ten Krisot aliens jumped into the air, flapped their red and black feathered wings, then dove toward his people.

  “Blam! Blam! Blam!” came repeated shots from Maureen’s, Aashman’s and Ignacio’s revolvers.

  Three Krisot shrieked with pain, showed red blood spots on their blue-feathered chests, then fell onto their own platform.

  Jack pulled his revolver, aimed and put five shots into the two nearest Krisot chests even as giant yellow beaks opened to bite into him and his people. He dropped the empty revolver, lifting his sword with both hands.

  “Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam!” came a second volley of shots from the revolver carriers.

  “Spread out! And fight!”

  The wings of five ferocious Krisot whapped against Jack, Maureen, Aashman and Ignacio, knocking the guns from their hands. Akemi fell back, dodging a yellow beak aimed at her head. Clawed feet scratched at Jack’s Kevlar vest while a yellow beak dived at his face.

  He dropped, rolled under the clustering and flapping Krisots, then stood and dove Old Roy into the butt of a Krisot as its lion tail whipped wildly. It screeched in pain, trying to look over its feathered back even as it flapped its wings and clawed at his friends with its four talon-feet. Pulling the Viking long sword out of the faltering avian, he turned to the four still in hover-attack mode.

  Akemi’s long sword gleamed with red blood as she slashed two hind feet off of one hovering Krisot.

  Júlia, knocked onto her back by the initial assault, reached up with her bronze scythe-sword and ran its tip through the belly of a hovering Krisot, pulling out entrails.

  Minna, her white blouse red with blood spots, dodged a backward foot kick and then drove her long Viking blade into the side of a Krisot on Jack’s left. Ignacio and Kasun drove sword and staff into a fourth avian he had stabbed. The fifth attacker, dripping blood from its four taloned feet, lifted up on broad wings and hover-flapped seven meters above them, its two red eyes flashing hunger at them even as its pod-mates lay dead or wounded on the ground.

  “Humans die!” it screeched in high-toned English

  Maureen rolled out from under the pile of dead griffin Aliens at the green portal, standing up shakily. Her Kevlar vest showed long scratches and her left
cheek had a cut from her right cheekbone down to her chin. It bled redly. Dropping her empty revolvers, Maureen stood up, eyed the single surviving Krisot as it screeched defiance above them, then pulled her javelin from her back scabbard. Leaning back, she aimed and threw the slim spear.

  The Krisot, having tilted over to make another dive attack on Jack’s people, screeched again. “Now you die!”

  The javelin pierced its chest just below the yellow beak, sliding into its long lion body like a hot knife through butter. Shock showed in the red eyes.

  “No, no!” it cried in a dying whistle as its chest spurted heart blood, the wings flapped erratically and then it simply dropped from the air to land ten meters away.

  A crowd of other predator Aliens, among them Gyklang grizzlies, Yiplak hyenas, Hackmot lizards and Rizen lion-hippos, stopped their movement toward Jack and his people. The loud snarls, growls, wheeps, barks and Alien whistles died down. In front of them Kasun moved with his stave, stabbing it into the bodies of any Krisot who still twitched. Aashman, his revolver dropped, sat atop one wounded Krisot and slammed his spike-gloves into its eagle head until the dull light in the creature’s red eyes went out.

  “Damn!” Aashman cursed. “You died too quickly!”

  Jack held Old Roy out in front of him, its blood runnel dripping red Krisot blood. He glanced around quickly, hopping to see everyone alive and moving.

  Akemi showed two blood-red cuts down her left arm, even as she stood to his far left with her katana lifted high.

  Ignacio, hulking beside her, had a bloody head wound from where a Krisot beak had struck him. But the Basque held his Roman short sword outward with one hand, his other hand holding a flat throwing knife that Jack realized came from his empty legging.

  Minna was folding a piece of her blouse into a wad that she pushed against her left breast, which seemed to have been talon-pierced. Her long sword was held in her right hand, her face showing a battle hunger that said her wound had only incited her.