In what sounded like a monotonous cluck, the Android transformed into a small box equipped with thrusters, abandoning her feminine figure for the comfort of flying all the way to the top in a matter of seconds. I looked as she ascended with ease, holding myself back from having a long talk about responsibilities and professionalism. But still, I always forgot that Silver was bound by Asimov’s Laws of Robotics so that she would follow my every command even if she didn’t want to.
With both of us finally standing on the top of the shattered pillar, I took out my flask full of water and took a long and satisfying sip. By the time I lowered my head, and tightened my ponytail so that my hair didn’t get in the way, Silver had changed back to her usual form.
Some parts metal, other parts holographic, details that made her look like human, Silver seemed like a beautiful human, which was the complete opposite of me.
“Okay, this should be high enough. Can you please run a scan on a five-mile radius? We should get some kind of reading from up here, not like yesterday.” We had already searched all the adjacent areas around our camp, except this one. It was getting late, however, and this was the last place in our list. Tomorrow we would venture deeper into the woods and change our camping site.
This time, Silver seemed to lose some of her rebellious personality, and she lively followed my orders. A short string of beeps and laser lights traveled through the horizon. It would take some time for her to complete the analysis so I thought of recapping the information I already had about the Nusae relic.
Back on Yaerus, during one of my lengthy visits to the Institute, the place where all human knowledge and archives were stored, I had just found something fascinating. While going through a source about the pre-colonization era of the Primordial Earth, I stumbled onto a testimony of some kind, on a newspaper about an object of unknown origins.
The human that testified about the object had seen nothing like it in his whole life, said ‘it vibrated like a living thing and changed shapes in a matter of seconds.”
Nusae, the first of the Lost Species, were known for their cryptic technology, specifically what they currently knew as morphing. Silver, for example, used morphing technology to change into various and practical shapes that helped her achieve her goals easier. The schematics about this kind of technology were discovered back in the early days of Humanity’s Space Boom, making it one of the first complete and detailed info about the Nusae, until today.
Yet, this source was one hundred years old. Bits and pieces were found around the galaxy during that time, but no one could link all the pieces to what it amounted as the Great Mystery. Nusae just vanished at the same time Orihans started to appear. And even though there was little to none Orihans around the known galaxy now, Nusae were close to legendise.
Well, not if I find this relic.
“Eh...there is something strange going on,” Silver suddenly said.
“What? What did you find?”
“I can pick up two weak energy signals, both of similar nature coming from different directions. One northwest of here, the other southeast.”
“Did you run a pattern scan? Any forms of alien DNA? Did the signal’s energy resonated with any of the last relics?” I asked the questions all at once, not sure if she understood what I said.
“I don’t want to disappoint you, but both of those signals seem entirely foreign to each other and to my database, yet somehow similar. Maybe from the same era of some sort? I don’t know. I’m not sure if any of them are of Nusae origin, but they’re surely not originated from Earth. The signal and the complexity of the pattern are out of this world. I haven’t seen anything like it.”
I tightened my ponytail again while falling into deep thoughts. I didn’t have enough time to investigate both of them today. What should I do? Which one was most important of them? As a scientist, I pledged to follow only the facts and nothing else. But, in a twisted joke that fate came up with that, my gut was the thing that made the decision.
“We’re going forward Silver, to the northwest point. We can check the other point tomorrow.” And just like that, I jumped my way to the ground.
Throughout the way towards the northwest point, I didn’t speak at all. My mind was in overdrive, running all the parameters and trying to come up with a logical explanation. Alien signals, possibly not of Nusae origins. Yet, two of them in just a short distance? Could it be a trap? No, Silver would have noticed. But what could be so sophisticated that the combined knowledge of the Known Galaxy Archives wouldn’t recognize?
With every step I took, the anticipation built in my chest. My dark eyes and sun-toned skin almost glistened under my excitement. Many of my colleagues had doubted me up until now, but this was the time to retaliate. I would be the one to find out everything about the Lost Species.
Or so I thought.
“We’re here,” Silver said.
“What the hell is this?” I stopped to gawp at the large, pyramid shaped construct in the middle of what must have been a building square. Black in color, with shining silver marks sparkling under the sun. “If this is a Nusae spaceship, then I’m a prehistoric ape,” I said, irritated as hell.
“Do you want me to run a scan?”
“Yes,” I replied while at the same time tried to hide my discontent.
In under a minute, Silver stretched her hand and cast a beam of intense, greenish light to the black pyramid. When the warning sound came, Silver and I watched each other in surprise.
“It...it…” Silver tried saying something, but she couldn’t.
“It doesn’t appear in the archives.”
I couldn’t hold back a cheer; I had just discovered O. Tech.
Chapter Two
Jay
“Cryogenic System Support deactivated. Welcome back, Prime Officer Jasih.”
The hot sensation of blood running through my veins was enough to wake me immediately. Pain, memories, desires, all came back with a violent throbbing in my head. Everything behind my eyes felt like melting, but one deep breath somehow dulled the sensation.
Cryogenic Preservation was a mean bitch. After I finally opened my eyes, my sight was still blurry, probably because of a long time of not using them. But what I saw in front of me couldn’t be mistaken. Was that...a human?
The primal being, previously thought extinct, was now standing in front of me showing its teeth in what it seemed like some kind of jovial form of communication. Humans should yet be very underdeveloped to be able to communicate with me. It was better to leave it alone.
The human before me kept talking, and talking, but I couldn’t listen to a thing it said. Pesky, insignificant fly. I couldn’t lose more of my time here.
I moved both my hands and legs, trying to regain control. As soon as I did, I decided to gently push it out of my way. If I used more strength, my big muscles would easily squash it. It was already enough it had interrupted my cryogenic sleep. Now I had to find a way out of this planet.
An array of small, handy screens was located on the other side of the room. While asleep, these screens were my lifeline, and my digital archives. They were supposed to pass the information straight into my mind, but they didn’t. I had no idea how long I was asleep, or what happened in the meantime.
Just by touching the human’s tender skin, it seemed to lose balance and almost fall on the ground. It yelled something in a vexed manner, but I really didn’t have time to spare for primal beings. I took two uncertain steps towards the wall before me, only to stop in my tracks after seeing the data on the screens.
The number 2.514 was flashing on both screens. And just then, for the first time, a cold, shaky feeling spread from my stomach to the rest of my body in a matter of seconds. My spaceship was programmed to stop keeping archives after one hundred years of continued sleep. So, that means, I was asleep for over one hundred years.
“...Earth...you...crashed…”
Amid my confusion, I recognized these three words, seemingly coming from a d
ialect of the far edges of the galaxy, a dialect that a human shouldn’t have known.
Things were getting weirder, and weirder.
“Who are you human? Where am I?”
The human seemed surprised that I could speak the same dialect as it did fluently. However, I was not sure why, or how, I knew how to do that. The words just rushed out of my mouth all of their own.
In what was a weak control of the language, the human said: “Eladia. Chronicler. You are on the Earth.”
Earth. The Earth. What was I doing on Earth? I decided to respond the same way I did before, only, this time, I tried to adjust the dialect a bit, to make it easier to communicate with it.
“I’m Jasih. I’m a Prime Officer of... I’m from--,” and nothing came out of my mouth. Not a word, not an image of home, nothing. Just...darkness.
“From? From where?” The human sounded surprised I managed to learn its language so quickly, but it sounded more confident than before.
However, I didn’t care to answer to it. Instead, I started walking around the spaceship, searching for a sign of purpose, anything to identify my origins. Passing by a piece of a mirror, I saw my sparkling gray skin and my black hair, and what was a set of purple eyes, and not a single piece of information came back to me.
My clothes were torn, and the last thing I could recall to my memory was me — ordering a trip to Earth—yes, I remembered now. I was heading for Earth after all—searching for something of importance. But nothing else came to mind.
“Jasich...Jacih...no. I can’t pronounce that. I’ll call you Jay, from the first letter of your name. Jay, would you mind if I let Silver run some tests on you?”
I, now called Jay for the convenience of the smooth-skinned human, tensed. “I’m not a specimen, human. I’m Jasih, the Prime Officer of…. Fuck!” I yelled and punched the wall next to me, sinking the metal to the place my fist hits.
The human seemed to get frightened by my violent ways, but it couldn’t possibly understand how I felt now. And yet, even though fear flooded its eyes, it didn’t even fret.
“I can help you if you let me. You seem to have amnesia. Silver, my assistant, can run some tests on you, and we can find out more about your condition. I promise I won’t harm you.”
Just for a moment, I laughed at its sayings. Then, I took a step towards it, trying to intimidate it. And yet, it just blinked. Nothing else. “What gives you the impression that you can hurt me?”
The human didn’t answer. Now closer than before, I started examining its characteristics, trying to put it in a category of some sort. Humans, primal mammals that shared the same DNA code and were divided into males and females. That much seemed apparent. And then why in the seven prisons I couldn’t remember anything about my people and myself?
Its chest was bloated, but it seemed like a natural extension of its body. Its face had soft, symmetrical lines, nothing indicating that it was some kind of warrior. Its voice was high-pitched yet soothing. In the end, I just couldn’t place it, so I thought of just asking straight on.
“You. Human. Are you a male or a female?”
It was taken by surprise. “A female. Why? Is that a problem?”
Again, I didn’t reply to her. I now knew what I wanted from her, not that I would ever have guessed it by myself.
The hair on the back of my neck suddenly bristled. My body turned to face the danger, chest and hands protruded. “Come out!” I growled.
And just like a shadow coming to life, a figure appeared behind the cryogenic pod. But instead of moving against me, it rushed straight towards the woman named Eladia. Holding a long, wooden stick with a sharp tip on the edge, it aimed for the woman’s heart.
Unable to react fast enough, she just stood still. The second strange creature was going to kill the only person I could communicate with in this room.
I can help you. Her voice echoed in my mind.
My hand jolted and grabbed the tiny—tiny compared to me that is—creature that looked like a human, but with lots of hair. It growled, and tried to bite me twice, but in the end, it stopped.
“Okay, so can someone explain to me, what in the hell is going on here?”
Chapter Three
Eladia
My feet trembled. If Jay weren’t inhumanly fast, I would’ve been dead. But, it wasn’t over. He looked at me, ready to say something, but his level glare deemed me unworthy of words. Cocky bastard, he thought just because he saved me that he could take the credit by himself. But still, I couldn’t stop wondering what that hairy creature was.
I walked closer, tried to get its attention, but it was too caught up in getting freed from Jay’s grip, something that I thought improbable. Jay’s hands, in all their platinum silver glory, had that statuesque grace. This man could kill a man with a punch, or protect someone with his awesome body. And then it dawned on me: I was actually grateful for his interference.
Wake up Eladia. He just did it so that you could help him get out of here. Don’t get any ideas! I thought, but I wasn’t one of those people that got past thoughts like that easily. I tried to focus my mind on the feral creature Jay was holding.
Brown hair covered a significant part of its body. Its physiology was the same as a human’s, at least for the most part. Its hands were longer than mine, and his feet seemed broader, more strong. It was like the beast that Jay held in his hands had fallen at a previous stage of humanity’s evolution.
Eladia, you’re a genius!
My eyes opened broadly, and I got even closer to Jay, now having trouble holding the fit man still. If my theory was right, then...then I was the luckiest woman in the whole system.
“Silver, can you please run a scan on the man that Jay holds? I have a hunch that we might get surprised.”
Silver looked at me in utter surprise but quickly changed to her satellite form and started running numerous tests in a matter of seconds. Jay took a step towards me. My whole body prickled in his authoritative presence.
“Did you say, man? Is this...thing, a man?”
Nothing could get past you, Jay. “Yes. There were reports about life blooming again on planet Earth, but I never expected to find sentient forms so soon. We have to find if it can communicate with us and run many tests-”
I stopped. The man was suddenly loose, and Jay was on the air, on his way to the ground. My eyes were not quick enough to catch any movement, but I remembered the slender man twisting his lower part of the body, using Jay’s hand as support, and kicking the man under the jaw. In the time Jay needed to get a grasp of what was going on, the hairy man was already on his way to counterattack.
Adrenaline pumped in my veins; time slowed down. My hands trembled, and I felt the sweat running down my back, but my brain blocked out every sign of fear. I remembered that I had a flare in my back pocket, instinctively grabbing it. Jay is already up on his feet, although I was not sure that he ever even touched the ground.
Well, I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t. It was like this man was born to stand tall with his nose up in the air. But in all his arrogant demeanor, Jay seemed to follow up his name. Soon, the two men weighted each other's strength by swapping cold looks and preemptive attacks. That ancient form of a spear that the other man held certainly looked dangerous, but not as dangerous as Jay’s menacing muscles.
You have to do something Eladia.
I’m sure he could take care of him by himself, but Jay wouldn’t stop until he killed him. Or, at least he seemed that way. My mind was on overdrive again. Before I even had the time to follow a logical train of thought, I was running on Jay’s side with the lit flare on my right hand. Its intense red light cast an otherworldly shadow inside the spaceship, but it didn’t seem to make any difference on the situation.
“You stupid woman, what are you doing here?” Jay roared, only to see that he was too late. Watching me, he had warded his sight off the other man, creating an opening. At that time, I hadn’t realized that the opening was me.
&nbs
p; His huge body suddenly got in front of me; we were so close I almost kissed his shoulder blades. For some unexplained and totally humiliating reason, my first reaction was to hug him, passing my hands around his waist. I...I didn’t want him to die because of me.
“Stop!” Silver shouted, her voice almost screeching at a forgotten African-American dialect of the 21st century. I recognized only that word, but she kept talking.
I kept my eyes closed, and my grip tight. My face was touching Jay’s shirt, and I was sure I could sense his pulse pumping. I felt safe, even among this chaos.
“Human, you can let go of me now.”
His voice was ice cold, and I could swear he even tried to push me out of the way. I felt my ears burn and I quickly released my grip.
“I...I’m sorry.” I stuttered.
Yes, I did. Good going, Eladia. Now he must think you’re a stupid and careless woman. A stranger, and part of a new species of aliens, and you already clang to him. Good going.
Alien Romance Box Set: Romantic Suspense: Alien Destiny: Scifi Alien Romance Adventure Romantic Suspence Trilogy (Complete Series Box Set Books 1-3) Page 71