by J. C. Diem
It was freezing inside the ship and being naked wasn’t helping to warm me up. My teeth chattered as I propelled myself the short distance to the second hatch. It opened easily now that I was using two hands as well as my full vampire strength. With a screech, the handle turned and the hatch hissed open.
I’d expected to see the vast reaches of space through the windows but a grey shutter blocked my view. I was dismayed by the confusing array of ice coated buttons and levers on the console. Drifting over to the twin seats, I pulled myself into one and buckled the straps. Kept in place by the harness, I floated a couple of inches above the seat and studied the control panel. I could barely see it beneath the layer of ice so pried it off. The chunks floated around me like oversized snowflakes.
Half an hour or so later, I was no closer to understanding how the ship worked. No one had left me a handy manual to read and the buttons and levers gave me no indication of what their functions were. Figuring that I couldn’t do too much damage since the craft had long ago run out of fuel, I methodically began to push buttons.
One of the buttons finally worked and the grey shutter suddenly began to move upwards. It revealed a vast inky darkness with a smattering of distant stars. Staring at the void that surrounded the ship, I now knew why Kokoro had been sent her vision of death and darkness. Darkness had enfolded us and now death was hovering nearby, ready to snatch up my friends one by one and entomb them in oblivion.
Giving into despair would have been easy but I didn’t think my subconscious would agree with that idea. I had a feeling it would nag me until I did everything I possibly could to free my people.
Leaving the shutter open, I searched for a way to call for help. Humans had been the ones to send us out here and it was highly doubtful they’d change their minds about wanting us around. Sending out a distress call was our only chance of rescue so I picked up what looked like a microphone and started pushing buttons around it. I blinked in surprise when the lights suddenly came on. They illuminated the panel but didn’t help me to figure out what each button, dial and lever did. Whatever power source I had just tapped into probably wouldn’t last long.
“Hello? Is anyone out there?” I said into the microphone. “Our spaceship is out of fuel and we’re drifting helplessly. If anyone can hear me, please send help.” I repeated the message until the power ran out a few hours later.
After several never ending nights of watching the darkness that surrounded our ship, my subconscious admitted defeat. Give it up, it told me wearily. If anyone was out here, they would have found you by now.
Drawing my knees up to my chest, I wrapped my arms around them. Too defeated to cry, I sent my senses out in a last ditch effort to find help. Through the two hatches behind me, my kin were a barely detectable presence. Their unnatural life forces flickered, as if they were on the edge of death. Sweeping outwards from the ship, I sent my senses out as far as I could and felt nothing but emptiness.
Rotating in a circular motion, I began to bring my senses back in. Pausing when I felt a disturbance, I zeroed in on what felt like a ripple at the faintest edge of my radar. I went utterly still and concentrated with everything I had. Slowly but inexorably, something came into my range and drew closer with each moment that passed.
Hovering near the life forms, I knew they weren’t vampires or imps but they felt similar to them somehow. Maybe my abilities had changed again and I could now sense humans. Frankly, after the way we had been treated by them, I think would have preferred an alien rescue over humans any day.
.~.
Chapter Three
Eventually, the craft drew close enough for me to be able to see it through the window. Only my enhanced vampire vision made this possible. Without it I wouldn’t have noticed the craft at all. The gigantic ship was dead black and was almost invisible to the naked eye. Our ship would stand out, since it was so shiny and white.
As the craft descended, the cockpit was plunged into an even greater darkness. It occurred to me that I would be visible cowering naked inside the cockpit and I scrambled for the harness release. Leaving one eye behind as a spy, I scurried out through the hatch and closed it just as bright light blossomed inside the cockpit.
Holding onto the chair by the optic nerves, my eye tried to squint against the light but couldn’t since it didn’t have an eyelid stuck to it this time. It grew used to the brightness and goggled at what was clearly alien technology. Our ship shuddered when a gigantic pair of robot arms reached out and took hold of our hull. Another robot arm descended and violet light pierced the cockpit. My eye flinched and ducked back behind the seat as the robot presumably scanned for life forms. I wondered what their senses would pick up since we were pretty much just corpses that were animated by a strange dark magic.
Using the chair, my eye propelled itself backwards. I cracked the hatch door open just wide enough for the orb to float through it then closed it again. Popping my eye back into place, I made my way back to the other hatch and underwent the painstakingly long process of reducing myself down to particles again. It went slightly more quickly this time, mainly due to the fear that was invading me. I didn’t want to be separated from my friends when the beings that had snatched us came to investigate their find.
My panic turned out to be premature. I had plenty of time to funnel back through the hole and reform in the hold alongside my kin. My clothes still floated near the hatch. I shook the worst of the frost from them and performed an inelegant mid-air ballet to get dressed. We were all wearing clothing that we’d stolen from a store in Colorado. My outfit of a dark blue hoodie and black jeans matched Geordie’s almost exactly.
A quick count gave me the same number of vampires that I’d left behind some nights ago. Thankfully, no one had died during my absence. Expecting the outer hatch to be blown open at any moment, I gathered my insensate friends and allies together into one big jumble. Hours passed and nothing happened, except the temperature seemed to be warming up. Hours turned into days and my vigilance eventually slipped enough for me to fall asleep.
Opening my eyes, I was surrounded by dull silver walls. They stretched out in two directions with an occasional hallway branching off now and then. I’d had this dream before but was no less confused by it this time around.
Choosing a direction, I started walking. Passing the first opening, I glanced down it to see it breaking into another intersection. Wherever I was, I still had the feeling that it was huge. The smell of rotten eggs was still there but it was fainter this time. I suspected that if I’d been human, and this hadn’t just been a dream, the air would have been barely breathable.
Reaching the end of the main hallway, I looked left and right and saw more hallways. Choosing a different path from the one I’d taken in my previous dream, I glanced up at a painting that hung about a foot above my head and shuddered. The artist was brilliant but also very disturbed. He, she or it had painted a post-apocalyptic scene that was realistic enough to give me nightmares.
Blasted by war, a city sat in the distance. An ancient mountain range loomed behind it. Dry, cracked ground surrounded the city. Buildings had been shattered by weapons that were probably far more sophisticated than anything earthlings had yet invented. Only a few tall, thin towers remained. Whole blocks had been reduced to rubble. It was night time but the sky was a sickly yellow the exact shade I imagined the air would be if it had had colour. Thick, black clouds were massed over the city and almost seemed to be slowly moving.
Mesmerized by the exquisite detail, I caught something from the corner of my eye. Turning my head, I realized it wasn’t a painting at all. I was looking at an almost invisible monitor. Some kind of biped was on the move, it was so far in the distance that it was just a tiny dot. From the jerky way it was walking, I suspected it was mechanical.
Dazed that I seemed to have dreamed myself onto an alien planet, I continued down the hallway. Strange chirping noises, like hundreds of birds all trying to communicate at once, caught my ear. A few mo
re turns brought me to a much smaller hallway. Rows upon rows of doors branched off to either side.
Stopping at the first door, the window was far too high for me to peer through. Stretching up, I found enough purchase to haul myself up and peeked through the glass. Tiny creatures that were maybe two and a half feet tall were grouped together. Some were curled on their sides and huddled together like puppies as they slept. Their skin was grey and their ears were long, pointed and curled up at the ends. “Aww,” I whispered. They were so cute I almost wanted to pick one up and cuddle it.
Alerted by the noise, one looked up and saw me. Red light blazed from its eyes. Reaching out with a tiny, clawed hand, it chirped something and my blood tried to run cold. “Food?” it asked me. Others heard and turned. Soon they were all awake and started climbing over top of each other to reach me. They built a tower of bodies until one of the creatures was only a few inches away on the other side of the window. Exposing razor sharp teeth, it smashed its face into the glass and tried to eat its way through. Battle lust was turning it crazy as it frantically tried to reach me.
Dropping to the ground, the hairs on the back of my neck rose as the rest of the creatures in the hallway realized prey was standing only feet away. They started bashing against the doors in a frenzy to rend, tear and feed.
Waking, I tried to sit up, momentarily forgetting that I was weightless. The tiny creatures had seemed vaguely familiar but had quickly become very familiar when their rage had become uncontrollable. I didn’t know what they had been originally but they were now a form of the imps I’d known and despised back on Earth.
Again wishing Gregor was awake so I could pick his brain, I was left to puzzle this out for myself. Even my subconscious was quiet as I reviewed my dream. I came to the conclusion that the same alien that had infected the First had somehow also infected the creatures of the planet that I had just dreamed about. I also suspected we were now heading for that very planet.
The small creatures had probably been harmless enough before the alien blood had changed them into soulless eating machines. Unlike the imps I was used to, these hadn’t been hairless but had sported soft fuzz on their scalps. Their noses had been short stubs rather than flat and batlike. They had been remarkably similar in size and shape, making me think of them as clones again. Their eyes had been red rather than orange but maybe that was because they had originated from a species that wasn’t even close to being human.
I had managed the improbable by breaking into the cockpit and calling for help. Now it seemed that help wouldn’t be forthcoming at all. My dream was a warning that we had just jumped from the frying pan into a raging inferno.
Cocooned deep within the gigantic black spaceship, I only knew we had landed when gravity suddenly returned. Vampires thumped to the ground, still insensate and totally unaware that we had been captured despite being mostly thawed out since the temperature was much warmer now. The ice had melted a couple of nights ago but no one had woken from their comas yet. I was beginning to worry that they’d been frozen too long to be able to recover from it.
Moving quickly, I bundled my friends into a pile, making sure to push Geordie and Ishida into the centre. They were the most vulnerable and needed the most protection. I figured the hatch would be the most likely spot where the aliens would enter so I positioned myself on top of the mound facing the doorway.
Bright white light cut through the metal beside the hatch instead of through it directly, so I was half right. Keeping my eyes open a sliver, I watched as a large rectangle was carved into the hull then was suddenly yanked away. A creature that I estimated to be about nine feet tall entered. Beneath the simple black long sleeved shirt and pants, its skin was grey.
I wanted to sit bolt upright in recognition when I saw it’s red eyes and pointed ears but forced myself to lie still. It looked a heck of a lot like the alien that had crash landed on earth millions of years ago. This had to be one of the beings that had first spawned our unnatural species then had eventually caused us to be sent into space to be captured…by the same alien beings. I felt the hands of destiny closing around me as an ancient circle closed, capturing us in its midst and trapping us inside.
What the hell is going on here? I wailed at my subconscious. Take a closer look at it, it sent back at me. I did as commanded and noticed something strange about the alien. It didn’t blink and its movements were almost automated. It had a short, stubby nose and a mouth that was almost just a thin, lipless line. A bulky contraption that looked like a really ugly bracelet was attached to its left wrist and it held some kind of monitor in its right hand. The thing that offered its blood to the First wasn’t an alien at all. It was a robot just like this one, I realized. The explanation did little to clear up my confusion. Now that my inner voice had pointed it out, it was obvious that I was looking at a machine rather than at a living creature.
Striding forward, the robot aimed its monitor at the mound of bodies and violet light flared brightly. “Interesting,” the mechanical imp said in the same language the First and his clone hordes had used. Its mouth opened and closed slightly as it spoke but was a poor imitation of speech.
“What did the scanner pick up?” a gravelly, guttural voice barked through the contraption on the robot’s wrist.
“There are no signs of life within the creatures,” the robot responded without emotion or inflection. “The one that presumably sent the message appears to have been in far better health than the others before it also perished.”
“Are you sure it’s really dead?” the deep, raspy voice sounded suspicious. “It might be a ploy sent by my enemies. Check the creatures for traps.”
Kneeling beside the pile of bodies, the robot pressed the monitor to my leg. I controlled a wince at the small flash of pain that quickly faded. Studying the readings, the robot stood and backed away a pace. “The scans have picked up something very strange,” it said.
“Toxins?” grunted the other voice.
“Not toxins or anything that is harmful to you or your kind, master.”
“What is it then?”
“These creatures are not from our solar system. We have never encountered their species before yet I have detected ancient Viltaran nanobots in their blood.” My mind scrambled to translate what it was saying and nanobots was the best it could come up with.
“Can you guarantee that these things are dead and are not harmful to us?” The owner of the rasping voice was suspicious even of its own droid.
“Yes, master,” the robot said subserviently. “I can confirm that no harm will come to any Viltarans if they should come into contact with these creatures.”
“Stay where you are, I’m sending someone to take a look at the aliens.”
A wild giggle at being called an alien fought to escape me but I kept it in through sheer force of will. The poor robot had no idea what it was dealing with. Fate had brought us here and I assumed it now had a job for me. I was Mortis and my purpose had been made very clear. I could pretty much guarantee that any Viltaran that came within touching distance of us was probably going to come to a great deal of harm.
.~.
Chapter Four
Staying put as ordered, the robot continued to examine us as it waited for backup to arrive. Despite being told we were harmless, the Viltaran came dressed in what passed for their version of a biohazard suit. Its outfit was black, appeared to be lightweight and had no visible breathing apparatus in sight. Their race was clearly far more advanced than ours. Who knew what wonders they’d invented that we didn’t even have the capacity to think of yet?
Ducking to enter our ship, the alien was even bigger than the First had been after he’d been converted into an eight foot imp. Bulky muscles strained against his suit as he brushed past the droid. The face behind the helmet was subtly different but bore a close resemblance to the First. His nose was squashed but lacked the batlike quality I was used to seeing in the First’s clones. Long fangs protruded from his upper mouth. I cou
ldn’t see his ears but I would have been willing to bet they were long and curled up at the tips. Scarlet eyes settled on me, probing for signs of life.
Even knowing the creature’s blood had to be as diseased and deadly as the ooze that ran through my veins, my hunger began to rise. Stealthy and insidious, it worked its way into the forefront of my brain, drowning out all other thought. I was nowhere near as close to starvation as my friends and allies were yet I also hadn’t fed since being ejected from our home world. The urge to feed was quickly becoming overwhelming.
Crouching down, the Viltaran reached for me and my hunger took over. Grabbing the alien’s arm, my teeth tore through his suit like it was made of paper. I unerringly found a vein and bit down hard. Bone crunched as my grip tightened, blood spurted and my mouth was flooded with acrid, bitter, beautiful blood. It might be horrible to taste yet it wasn’t the same black ooze that tainted my kin and I was pretty sure it wasn’t harmful as ours was.
A few mouthfuls were enough to sate my hunger. I realized the Viltaran was screaming and futilely tearing at my face as it tried to pry me loose. All around me, my kin were becoming reanimated and were waking from their comas as they sensed food. As mindless as zombies, they crawled towards the alien that I easily held in place.
Luc didn’t even seem to see me as he grabbed the meal’s arm and buried his face in the same spot from where I’d just fed. Both the biohazard suit and the clothing beneath it were torn away in the feeding frenzy as they bore the creature to the ground. Bellowing in terror and thrashing helplessly, the Viltaran’s struggles began to weaken and he finally lay still as my family drained his blood.
Kokoro was the first to regain her senses. Wiping thick, fluorescent yellow alien blood from her mouth, she met my eyes. My own widened when I saw her eyes were no longer white but were as black as mine. “Can you see me, Kokoro?”