Humans and other Aliens: Book 1

by Winzer, Alexander

  “Today we’ll be fighting real aliens and we’ll be encountering people confronting a real life or death situation. We don’t know what will happen, but I believe we have the means to deal with whatever situation might present itself.” Jon scanned the people’s faces, feeling a sense of anticipation.

  “We will only be traveling to places in the US for now as other governments are still reviewing our program. That might change quickly once we’re successful. Zoe’s team will go first and Eva here will provide details of the destination. The portal guns now have a preprogrammed destination pointing into deep space, close enough to where Eva located the initial alien signal. Please be extremely careful not to get too close to the portal.”

  Jon looked at Eva who was scanning America for alien activity. The room was quiet, eerily quiet until…

  “Alien materialized in Las Vegas, Caesar’s Palace, Grand Ballroom. There’s a function in progress, more than five hundred people are attending. Be quick and good luck.”

  Eva transferred the landing coordinates into Zoe’s portal gun. It should take her directly behind the stage where she would find enough room to safely establish a portal. Zoe nodded. “Coordinates received. Let’s go.”

  She pulled the trigger. A grain of sand accelerated inside the gun’s glass sphere until a rainbow of colors collapsed into the artificial black hole at its center. The portal opened and Kal and Indrani jumped through, followed by Zoe, Edward, and Chloe. Zoe dropped back behind the two shield couples as they made their way onto the stage, weaving through the remnants of the orchestra to cymbals cracking and a lone trumpeter playing out his last note.

  The raised platform provided a good overview of the whole area. The room was in utter chaos. Tables and chairs had been knocked over and people were running towards the stage followed by something that was scaring the life out of them.

  “There’s no room down there. Let’s establish the portal up here and hope the alien will be attracted by it. Kal, Indrani, get down there and guide the people backstage. Once the alien is close by lure it to the portal. Ed, Chloe, you stay up here a few meters in front of the portal. Don’t let anybody walk into it.”

  Zoe fell back a few meters and pulled the trigger. A dark hole opened up pointing towards the function room, revealing massive clouds of glowing debris rotating around two black holes.

  Kal and Indrani hurried down the stairs and made their way towards the middle of the room. Kal hesitated. “I can’t see the alien, where is it?”

  Indrani pointed to the far end of the room where a woman was torn to pieces as if hit by a ship propeller. “Over there… but I still can’t see…” A man ran past Indrani, touching her on the shoulder. “Oh my God, look at this monster.”

  The man’s touch must have opened a channel, a bit like pressing a button on a TV remote. A creature that resembled a tall woman, at least her head seemed to be female, but her body was covered in white fur and her hands looked like the paws of a polar bear. Ten-inch-long black claws ripped through flesh and bones as if they were made of paper mâché. Her legs were covered in golden plates, resembling the exoskeleton of an insect, while a long tail, covered in a dozen golden spikes, lashed out continuously, killing another three people in its way.

  Indrani took the lead. “Let’s get closer. We have to shield the people over there.”

  Kal looked amazed when Indrani fearlessly rushed towards the alien, pulling him along behind her. The alien suddenly stopped. It looked at the stage where Zoe had already established a second portal directly behind the first.

  The alien moved fast. It rushed past Kal and Indrani, not even noticing them, as they struggled to keep up securing the area in its wake. A woman stood in front of the stage. She was frozen in fear, staring at the alien closing in. The woman’s presence seemed to have broken the alien’s fixation with the portal. It again now used its paws and long tail to bring death to whatever stood in its way. The poor woman didn’t even have time to cry before a massive paw took the head off her shoulders with one easy blow. The alien turned around and now looked directly at Kal and Indrani. They slowly moved closer. The alien leaped forward, towering over Kal and Indrani, who kept their steady approach going, trying to edge the alien back towards the portal.

  “Ed, Chloe, come down and help us.”

  The alien seemed to be surprised to suddenly have four people approaching it. Their hearts beat fast. They were sweating and their hands and legs trembled, but there was no fear, no self-concern that had to be destroyed.

  “Thank you, sisters and brothers!”

  Indrani felt a message echoing in her mind. She looked at Kal and the others who had received the same thought. The alien looked at them one last time, its eyes softening before it jumped up onto the stage and into the portal. The creature’s body started to glow as it floated off in empty space just before it burst into a rainbow of colors that contracted into a sparkling ball of light, zooming off in the direction of the binary black hole where it finally found peace.

  Indrani sat down on the floor, shaking. “That was … not what I expected”

  Zoe hurried towards her team. She nearly fell over Indrani, hugging them all in an emotional outpouring of gratitude. “You’re wonderful! We’ve done it! We’ve really done it!”

  The people in the room looked stunned. They didn’t know what had happened and who their strange-looking saviors were. An old, grey-haired man slowly walked towards them. “Thank you! I don’t know how you did it, but it looks like you just saved our lives. Thank you!”

  Jon and the three remaining teams had been watching Zoe’s success on Eva’s holographic display. Fifteen men and women were cheering, hugging, and jumping in elation when Eva pointed at a number on her second display that would only make sense to Jon and Ivan.

  Ivan started one of his programs, analyzing the atmosphere for alien signals. “It looks like… Yes… this one is really gone, but”—Ivan looked concerned—“but somehow its energetic strength has been added to the male signal… the one that Delta was worried about.”

  Jon nodded. “We’ll have to look into that later, but for now…”

  Eva registered another alien attack. “Alien materialized in New York, Macy’s, 151 W 34th St, first floor. Good luck.”

  “This is me,” announced Jon.

  Eva looked sick transferring the coordinates into Jon’s portal gun. “Be safe and come back to me in one piece.”

  Jon pulled the trigger. A portal appeared a few meters in front of him. Chris and Suki went through followed by Jon, Anaya, and Ciaran. The whole floor looked like a war zone. The bluish glow of particle-gun fire lit up the far end of the hall.

  “I guess that’s the security guards trying to stop the intruder. Let’s get closer.” Jon followed his team as they joined hands and walked in front of him. “Over there.”

  A security guard was flung up into the air, or rather his body was, his severed head already rolling over the white marble floor.

  “I still can’t see it, we need to touch someone that has already made contact.” Suki reached out to a woman who was hiding behind a column as she passed her. “Over there, I can see it now.”

  A woman in a long black dress with massive curved horns shot a greenish liquid out of her mouth at a man who was trying to scramble past her. The man’s body went up in smoke, then dropped to the floor where only a greenish-brown stain was left a few seconds later.

  “Suki, Chris, approach from the right, Anaya, Ciaran, you go to the left. Try to shield the alien from the people and push her towards the portal.”

  Jon fell back and established a portal. Suki and Chris walked around a cosmetic stand that had been smashed to pieces. “She has multiple snakelike tails with barbed spikes at the end. Don’t get too close.”

  The alien turned around. It must have sensed the portal that Jon had just opened.

  “It’s moving fast. Block this walkway.”

  Suki and Chris stretched out their hands as far as possibl
e, closing off the only way through to the side where people were hiding behind a sunglasses stand.

  The tall black woman approached at a speed that defied her unusual, reptilelike body. She looked at Anaya and Ciaran who mirrored Chris and Suki in blocking off the exits to the side. Jon checked the gun’s display. Only fifteen seconds before the portal collapsed. He moved back and pulled the trigger a second time. Another portal materialized behind the first one, again shielding him from certain death. The first portal collapsed when the alien woman passed Anaya.

  She looks confused, thought Jon. He was not sure if it was the collapsing portal or Anaya’s presence that stopped her in her tracks.

  “Who are you?”

  The alien turned and looked directly into Anaya’s eyes. Anaya made one step forward indicating that she was not afraid. “I’m not your enemy. We’re here to help. We come with a gift. A way home.”

  Anaya pointed towards the portal that displayed the center of the faraway galaxy that the alien life form called home. The woman smiled. She kissed her forehead with bright red lips that covered a row of needlelike teeth.

  “Thank you, sister.”

  The alien woman turned and moved fast as lightning, vanishing into the portal, which closed behind her.

  Jon walked towards his team. “You did well! Very well! Let’s go back. Security will be able to handle it from here.”

  Jon entered the coordinates of the lab and signaled his team to jump through. “Hi, Eva, we’re back, we’re still…”

  Eva looked worried.

  “What’s wrong?” Jon expected cheers and happy faces.

  “It’s Peter and his team, they’re in serious trouble. Another alien materialized in Dallas just a couple of minutes after you left. Peter volunteered to go next. They arrived and were able to locate the alien. A mean-looking creature. Peter did the right thing. He generated a portal as the others tried to protect the people while forcing the alien towards the portal.”

  Jon nodded. “So what…?”

  Eva grabbed his arm. “Look!”

  She pointed at her holo display that showed Peter lying on the ground next to his portal gun, his body unmoving, twisted in an unnatural way. The first portal had already collapsed and there was no second portal in sight. Peter’s gun was missing its glass sphere.

  “He was trying to establish the second portal when a man, running for his life, knocked him over. That’s when the sphere broke.”

  Jon felt a cold, empty sensation growing in his abdomen. “The alien was about to enter the portal when it collapsed. Peter was standing only a few meters behind it. He was trying to get away, but… the alien attacked him.”

  Jon’s eyes were fixed to the display “What are they doing?”

  Peter’s whole team had joined hands. They had trapped the alien creature in their midst, but something was wrong. Their arms shook as if they were hooked up to an electric current while the alien in the center spun around itself faster and faster. Jon squinted his eyes. The alien resembled a tall, pale woman with long dark hair and silvery mandibles, similar to that of a massive ant, protruding from an otherwise female face. The creature started to glow and shimmer like a crystal that was illumined by the light of the sun breaking it up into the colors of a perfect rainbow.

  “We have to go and help them. Eva, transfer the coordinates to my gun.”

  Eva nodded. “Done.”

  Jon pulled the trigger. This time he rushed through first, not worrying about the agreed procedure. Peter was lying on the floor, one hand still holding on to his broken gun while blood dripped from a massive wound in his chest onto the concrete floor. His team of four struggled to contain the whirling vortex in their midst.

  “Chris, Suki, help them.”

  They moved in fast, trying to add their power to the four people who had formed the dangerous circle. Suki touched Ryan on his shoulder. The connection opened a channel. A torrent of hissing pain rushed through her body. It felt like touching a high-voltage power line. Suki and Chris were thrown back, landing hard on the floor.

  “Arghh…” Suki looked at her hand. It was burnt and smoke was coming off her fingertips.

  “Don’t touch them!” Anaya moved back, helping Suki back on her feet.

  Jon had by now established a portal, but the alien didn’t seem to notice, “I’ll try again. This time as close as possible.”

  He moved forward, team by his side. “Now!”

  A portal materialized only a meter from the circle of bodies that kept the alien trapped at its center. “I think it has noticed it.”

  The alien creature suddenly stopped spinning.

  “It wants to get to it. Ryan, Myra, let go.”

  Jon stared at them, waiting for them to react “They can’t hear us. What…?”

  The alien creature moved towards the portal forcing Peter’s team along with it.

  “No! Let go! Open the circle!”

  Anaya tried to touch them, but Ciaran held her back. “Don’t! You can’t help them.”

  Anaya looked at the alien creature. “Sister! Please don’t! Leave them.”

  A thought entered her mind. “It is not in my power. I have to go.”

  The alien pushed forward. It made contact. It touched the portal forcing Ryan and Myra to merge with the shimmering surface, taking them with it into deep space. Sia and Neil were thrown back as their hands disconnected, dropping to the floor unconscious.

  “Oh my God! What is that…?”

  Anaya dropped to the floor, holding her head. Jon shuddered as he watched Ciaran, Chris, and Suki drop to their knees a second later. They were caught in a trance, eyes rolling back into their heads, shivering like they had been thrown into a deep freezer.

  “What’s going on?”

  Jon hurried over to Anaya. He was trying to help her up, but her body was stiff as a plank and her face was frozen in agony.

  “Anaya, Suki, Chris… wake up!”

  Jon sat down next to his friends. He watched their paralyzed bodies, feeling utterly hopeless. It felt like an eternity had passed before Suki slowly emerged from the hypnotic state. “Jon…?”

  “Suki, what happened?”

  Suki looked shocked. No… it was more than just shock. She actually looked petrified. Jon had never seen her like this before. Her eyes looked different, darker, something extraordinary must have happened.

  “He… he has opened his eyes… he will be here soon.”

  Jon looked at the others. They were all equally shocked about what had just been revealed to them. Chris got up and offered Suki his hand. “Jon, we have to go back as fast as possible. We have to talk to Delta.”

  Jon nodded. “Are you able to carry Sia and Neil through the portal?”

  Ciaran picked up Sia who looked like a child in his arms, while Chris and Suki carried Neil to the portal that Jon had just created.

  “Jon, oh my God. I’m so glad you’re OK.” Eva wrapped her arms around him and kissed him passionately.

  “I am, but…”

  Eva knew. She had observed the horrible incident leading to Peter, Ryan, and Myra’s death.

  “The others here dropped to the floor just like your team. It was really scary. Their eyes rolled back, they were completely white.”

  Jon knew how scared Eva must have been observing this frightening display.

  “It’ll be OK.”

  Indrani looked stunned. “No, Jon … it will not be OK… He has awakened. He is…”

  Kal stroked her shoulder. “He is the end. We were shown how every trace of humanity will be erased. How mankind will be annihilated. There is no hope. The gods themselves fear him.”

  Jon sat down next to Eva. He looked at his friends. What had happened? They had been victorious only to be threatened by an even more fearsome enemy. It looked like they had finally found a way to fight the intruders only to be confronted with their certain demise. All was lost. Their strength, their passion, and even worse, three of their team had been killed. No!
Three of their friends just lost their lives and unknowingly created a situation that might well be the beginning of the end.

  The door opened and Delta walked into the room. He looked older, as if he had aged ten years in just one day.

  “What… happened to you?” Jon was shocked to see him like that. He had been perfect. Not one single line marked his face, but now he actually looked human. He resembled a thirty-year-old man who had seen a lot in those three decades.

  “Don’t worry about me. I am fine. I see that you know. You have seen him… or rather, he has seen us.”

  Delta walked to the center of the room and stopped next to Eva. “Having three beings removed from this dimension at the same time resulted in a powerful spike in the energetic field of the universe. It woke him. He will be accumulating his powers for a little while, but he will rain his wrath down on earth very soon. We still have a chance, but we have to act fast. We have to be ready when he arrives or it will be the end of human existence as you know it.”

  About the Author

  Alexander Winzer, born in Austria, Vienna, September 1971, blends classical sci-fi with environmental, spiritual and philosophical topics.

  While book one of the “Humans and other Aliens” series is his first published novel, he has already finished book two which is scheduled to be released early September 2017. He is now working on a third book, again holding true to the unique mix he casually calls Dharma-Sci-Fi.

  Alex's stories successfully combine spiritual topics, particularly the ancient teachings of Advaita Vedanta, with dystopian realities, while turning a critical eye on current affairs, human values and beliefs.

  The author currently lives in NSW, Australia, with his wife and two children.