Abductees

by Alan Brickett

  Bolts of blue and purple snapped up into the rock and brought a massive chunk of it collapsing down in front of its group.

  Oh good, a barrier.

  It fired again and brought another rocky barrier down in front of the second group, providing them some extra cover while leaving the humans exposed in the middle. Then it dropped the weapons to the tunnel floor, pointed them directly at the humans, and let rip.

  For three seconds, the weapons discharged an impressive amount of energy. Ionized bolts sizzled through the air, five times larger than those made by the pistols the Lanillans used.

  Bolts of coalesced plasma discharge wrapped in magnetic fields around a solid projectile were fired from the other weapon, their impact output capable of blasting through solid steel walls, in succession.

  If the Antonasas had intended to kill the humans, it would have fired right at them; as it was, the creature still caused mayhem.

  The targets of its attacks were the walls and floor around the humans, and it blasted chunks of rock from the carved surfaces, sending shrapnel flying among them. Protective fields wrapped the humans in a glowing outer covering, and the impacts of dozens of splinters of rock per split second were revealed as sparkling currents across their bodies.

  Engestine stopped firing, and the sudden silence was deafening. Amazingly, the humans were still standing. Not only that, but they still had defiant looks on their faces.

  “Have you changed your minds?” Engestine asked, gurgling the question out.

  He stopped to ask, means he expected this would go easier. Oh dear.

  In response, the humans opened fire.

  This time, they didn’t fire green bolts of energy—these were a dull orange—and the other three joined in with their smaller weapons. Their fire was also coordinated. In less than a second, Pendonar watched his protective energy field go from orange to a dull green, with warnings sounding from the generator strapped to his waist.

  The pale-skinned human was unloading on him while the big human and the other tall female fired simultaneously on one of his companions on the other side of Engestine.

  Combined fire from the short human and the dark-skinned female overloaded the shield of a front-line Lanillan, forcing him and the others he was protecting to dive behind the rock barrier that Engestine had brought down.

  Pendonar quickly followed their good example, he and the other three Lanillans on their side ducking behind the rock as well.

  Chips of rock blew off, glowing in super-heated reaction to the shots that chewed into the barrier as the humans’ aim followed them down. Then the weapons changed targets to concentrate on the Antonasas—who just stood there and returned fire.

  The massive alien was able to carry a much larger energy shield generator and could probably withstand the attack of a space shuttle.

  The humans’ weapons quickly built up the load on its output, and the color of the protective field changed from dull yellow to bright green.

  Risking the storm of fire, Pendonar popped an eye over the rock he cuddled behind. The humans were taking a lot of return fire from Engestine. Flurries of shots from the scaly creature erupted in responding auras across the bodies of the humans while the Antonasas stood there laughing.

  Then Engestine got serious, focusing fire onto the lead human with the shaved head, engulfing the strange alien in an aurora of incoming fire that pushed his protective fields so far they glowed an almost constant white.

  That one is as good as dead, oh well, one out of five we will need to disect in burnt pieces.

  Abruptly, a dome of violet glowing energy sprang up around the humans, starting a little higher than the tallest one’s head and reaching down to the ground around all five of them. The fire from the Antonasas was irrevocably stopped at the edge of the barrier, with absolutely no reaction from it at all.

  What Pendonar also noted was that the humans weren’t firing back through it.

  He wasn’t the first to notice. Other Lanillans took the opportunity to add their fire to the fountain coming from Engestine, but to no result; the violet-colored dome took everything they had. For several seconds, all of them poured an almighty torrent of destructive energy at it without any sign of response or weakening.

  What in the good family name is that?

  Eventually, Engestine ordered them to stop. It had to shout to get over some of the noise of weapons fire. Then it stood there and looked at the humans inside their protective shell. They had grouped together, and when the incoming fire stopped, they all looked over to the Antonasas to see what would happen next.

  Engestine obliged them, growling out, “So, you are worth the effort. Good. Now, how long can you stay under that shield? I wonder.”

  The Antonasas raised its weapons to point once again at the ceiling and opened fire, raining tons of rock down on the humans inside their violet dome, completely covering them and sealing them in.

  Pendonar and the other Lanillans stood there with their mouths open.

  Crushed bodies to excavate, and we hope their equipment survives?

  Once the noise of falling rock finished echoing in the tunnel, Engestine contritely commented, “Ah, well, I hope it was an excellent shield.”

  Automated log update.

  Analysis of subjects’ current encounter with hostile aliens complete.

  Surmise less than fifteen percent chance of failure or death. Ongoing monitoring has put retrieval into standby. Upgrade of status to a more active profile unnecessary at this time.

  Forecasting of events outcome postulates no more than a five percent variance in danger equivalences. Subjects’ usage of Gravitonics has increased.

  Performance output equivalent to apprentice starting level.

  Mission variables note that this is more than sufficient to handle the current conditions and postulated conditions of a worst-case scenario.

  Current events should culminate in a positive outcome for mission parameters without damaging subjects beyond repair.

  Medical systems diagnostic commencing as surety.

  Monitoring continues.

  * *

  The Antonasas called their homeworld Antonas, in direct to English translation they viewed it as something like the word “Primordial.”

  As much as the philosophy as an origin point, much like Eden for humans, the Antonasas understood the rare set of circumstances that brought life to their species.

  On earth a Saurian was considered a dinosaur like or lizard-like humanoid, the scientific term of the Protosaur means the genus or genetic line of Saurian characteristics. The idea of some kind of sentient and mobile dinosaur had been in the imagination of humans throughout various works of fiction.

  The whole concept was fiction because scientists made repeated reference to the difficulty for any life form with those characteristics to exist. Planetary development being reasonably easy to predict within specific parameters for M class worlds or other carbon-based lifeforms provided specific models.

  All of these models showed such a low chance of a planet providing the nurturing environment for a Saurian to exist that it was considered statistically improbable. It was not however impossible, and so the stories kept going with the general idea that there would be no Saurian stomping out of the Earth’s past.

  The Antonasas, however, was the result of the planetary lotto and won the jackpot which allowed them to exist.

  Their world started out much like Earth, although sitting fractionally closer to the sun and with an atmospheric layer thicker than that of Earth. This provided the carbon dioxide rich and high-temperature environment which the Dinosaurs of Earth had thrived in.

  Over millions of years, Antonas shifted on its axis which brought climate change, as expected for most planetary bodies. The Dinosaurs of the earth would have died out or suffered population depletion in the planetary changes of Earth in the 21st century.

  On Antonas the population thrived in the thicker atmosphere and temperate climate spread
over a world of macro jungle life. A Human on Antonas would have had to live their entire lives in the equatorial portion of the Amazon just to keep up with the temperature, humidity, and lack of ability to cool down since there was no night time drop.

  That was only if the Human carried an oxygen bottle since the atmosphere had five times the lethal amount of carbon dioxide for Human biology.

  The beings which came to call themselves Antonasas evolved larger brains, even the secondary and tertiary brains required for their body mass, and began to experiment with thinking after seventy-five million years.

  Naturally, the predatory species came out on top although with keen insight they also cultivated the intelligence of other parts of their race. Racial characteristics among the Antonasas separated them in extremes while maintaining sentience.

  Where Humans had Caucasians, Asians and so on, the Antonasas had variations on body size, legs, tails, and even wings. To put it in the fictional terms they resembled anything from a talking Tyrannosaurus Rex to administrating Pterodactyls with the variability in-between producing hard working Iguana and scout assassin Raptors.

  Over the next few hundred thousand years the intelligence and societal complications among the various Antonas races weeded out the genetic diversity, and global warfare sorted out the rest. This left the Antonasas seen in the Galactic Citizenship today as the dominant race and principle example of their kind.

  The Domum were not the first to find the Antonasas, it was, in fact, a pioneering Jascalian scout group that first discovered them. At the time the Antonasas had orbital stations and explored several planets in their own solar system.

  If the Jascalians had not taken the intellectual requirements of building such a vast effort at so high a value, they would have survived the encounter by running away.

  Because of their rare environmental conditions, the concept of an Antonasas making its way through space and onto other worlds or vacuum habitats was hard to believe without some charitable thought to their adaptability.

  An Antonasas that went to space had to be provided with much more heat and atmosphere processing than you would find in Human or Domum starships. Spacecraft for the Antonasas would have required an order of magnitude more power and complexity.

  The Jascalians found the Antonasas in vessels and space habitats not too dissimilar to their own designs. At first, they assumed this was due to changes and adaptation of the Antonasas themselves, a higher intelligence making concessions to expansion.

  What they did not realize early enough was that the Antonasas had gone into genetic engineering while still a young species, relative to their millions of years of evolution. With such a diverse genome to start with and the mentality that there was no such thing as a moral problem with tampering, they adapted themselves.

  What had been the weaker members of the species became test subjects, the stronger took the beneficial results and whatever else worked they customized to their requirements.

  The population of the Antonasas’ solar system was smaller genetic offshoots of the primary demographic of their homeworld. Adapted to breathe different atmosphere mixes, work in lower temperatures and adapted to lower gravity or none at all these astronauts were not the primary examples of their kind.

  The Jascalians met the space-born Antonasas and were hurriedly passed along to meet representatives from the main homeworld.

  There they conversed, traded information and knowledge, and had an overall good time. All in orbit in the space habitats. They never met or got a glimpse of the true Antonasas down on the surface and when the representatives who hosted them so well turned on them with their soldier race it was a short and messy end.

  The Antonasas subverted the Jascalian starship technology, reverse engineered it and within the next solar year had a working starship of their own. Using the communications systems, they developed a beacon with a cycling message in all the Galactic Citizenship languages.

  They then built some more starships, placed copies of this beacon in a three-dimensional globe around their solar system and sent out an emissary to the Domum.

  The beacons message was simple, no trespassing.

  The emissary took messages to the Domum and the Galactic Citizenship containing their intentions. They did not want anyone in their solar system, their right to privacy was absolute and they would join the Galactic Citizenship and all of its laws for peace and cooperation so long as this demand was met.

  There was slight mention as to how they had learned what they knew but as far as the historical records went those pioneering Jascalians were lost in space after a bright career.

  When the Galactic Citizenship sent out a Balimdor ambassador to talk with the Antonasas and negotiate their membership they were met with a friendly welcome. This welcome was in a space station built at the edge of the Antonasas solar system and populated by two different races.

  Their soldier Antonasas were present, and a second smaller example who worked on the systems of diplomacy and trade.

  Numerous surreptitious attempts were made to learn more about the Antonasas, but while they did not make any mention of the expeditions or spy missions lost in their solar system, so too did none of them return.

  For all the Domum and the Galactic Citizenship knew the original locals of their homeworld enjoyed the brief examples of out-system savory snacks in the form of their agents.

  The soldier Antonasas formed the technical and military backbone of all their starships sent out into the Galactic Citizenship. The smaller examples populated their administrative centers and, when they found suitable worlds, also ran their xeno-protectorate operations.

  It seemed that the Antonasas had a complete understanding of the rarity of their kind, so for every world, they found in the same state of progression as Earth eighty-million years ago, they advocated to be protectors of those worlds.

  The first time it happened there was a lot of discussions, after that, it became an easy win for the Antonasas to set a solar system as a sanctuary habitat.

  Each of these solar systems had the same beacon structure setup, with a naval fleet of guardians and a transparent plan for keeping the world developing along the same lines as their homeworld.

  No planetary changes were made, extinction level events were stopped, and overall the inhabitants of those worlds were given a paradise experience to evolve without any interference. The only goal was that they would develop into a Saurian form much like the Antonasas themselves and then be approachable.

  So without any other planetary colonies to speak of the Antonasas became a species that explored and gathered knowledge without territorial expansion. Only in space did they spread out, but no planetary surface became a home for them.

  They said that they hoped to someday share planets with the other Saurian worlds, or find a xenoforming method of turning a barren planet into their own habitable environment. Considering their technological prowess, the Galactic Citizenship experts thought they would be there already, so their delay was strange.

  Despite their mystery, the Antonasas were clearly there to stay, with individuals taking up all sorts of mercenary jobs or technical roles among the other races of the Galactic Citizenship.

  * *

  The violet glimmer of the dome shone across the inside, providing a feeble light for the five humans to see by.

  Ormond was honest enough to give voice to his fear.

  “Blimey! I thought we were gonna die when that rockfall came down on us.”

  “Uh, it is a gravimetric shield created through Gravitonics. The actual boundary is made up of the essential energy that provides mass and gravity. Even if that field was only an atom’s width in thickness, it could still hold the relative power of hundreds of suns worth of force. According to my software, it’s intact and harmonic, whatever that means.” Marc was running a finger down the inside of the dome.

  “I think my head would probably hurt if I tried to think about it too much, but basically, a comp
lete shield like this won’t let anything in or out that isn’t more powerful or can’t exert a greater force. And let’s face it, I doubt anything that could be carried in these tunnels would come close to competing with the power of hundreds of suns.”

  “So, that’s why you said we shouldn’t try and shoot?” Connor asked.

  He was also looking around the inside with a degree of awe on his face. He’d created the shell for them an instant before Ormond’s singlesuit shields were about to fail.

  “Uh, yeah, nothing in or out. Even the shape is unnecessary. The barrier itself can exist in any shape. But I guess there is some design consideration if things can slide down the sides…” Marc faded off into his own thoughts.

  Ormond took the opportunity to speak up. “Hey, mate, thanks.”

  Connor looked at him, a little bit of surprise leaking out. “No problem, bud. We are a team, remember?”

  Ormond could understand the surprise.

  He hadn’t exactly been the nicest of people in this whole thing, and the constant sarcasm probably didn’t help. But he wasn’t going to change who he was just for a few billion light years, a mess of aliens, and their silent abductors.

  Well, not all at once, anyway. Although they do deserve better than me old self.

  “Yeah, big boss man, keep the sentimentality to yourself, alright.” He responded to the grin that Connor gave him with one of his own.

  “So, what now?” Lekiso asked. She was settled on her haunches, relaxed. “We have some time if, as Marc says, they can’t get through this. So, unless they start to dig us out first, what do we do?”

  “Continue to find a Devourer sample?” Connor asked, looking at Meriam.

  For her part, she was leaning with her upper back propped against the inside of the dome. Ormond figured their singlesuits had issued some calming medication. They were all taking the whole covered-in-tons-of-rock thing a bit too easily.

  Meriam fiddled with the forearm equipment she had up before she replied.

  “Those traces we were following have been destroyed in the firefight. Must be the amount of heat and energy. But the falling rocks seem to have created air flow. I’m detecting a lot of the trace particles now moving around out there. I’m trying to run some algorithms on their spread of density to see if they are coming from a particular area of the mines.”