by Joshua James
Saito drew back to spit in the Pale Man’s face, but before he could, a tentacle-like tube rose up out of the floor below the chair, slid around his chest, and attached itself to the top of his head. He felt metal biting into the top of his head and tried to scream, but nothing came out. His vision dimmed, and he passed out.
Six
“And you’re sure that’s what you saw?” Ada asked Ben. He and the others in the cockpit had come down to the main shared space in the center of the gunship, where everyone else was sitting around one of the three tabletops.
Ben nodded. “After it blew up the station, that damn orb consumed it. I don’t know how else to explain it.”
He, Morgan, and Ace had watched in silence on the cockpit viewscreen as it happened.
“And it got bigger,” Morgan said. “The circumference grew proportional to the mass it consumed, I’d say.”
They all sat in silence for a moment, considering what it meant.
“Shit, that damn thing is huge now,” Ace said, stating the obvious with his usual panache.
“So where does that leave us?” Ada asked.
Ben ran his hand through his hair and glanced at Morgan. “That’s kinda what we’re wondering.”
Morgan hadn’t chosen to sit at the tabletop with the others. She was lying with her feet up on an old reclining couch that was built into the wall. She wouldn’t stay long. The ship’s autopilot was one of a billion systems not working shipwide, so she’d be needed in the cockpit soon.
Ben noticed the exposed pipes that lined the ceiling. The old gunship really did have a strange feel. He still hadn’t gotten a straight answer out of Ace or Morgan about the exact origin of the tough little craft. Morgan only said that they’d inherited it from the doomed Oblivion undercover mission on Earth.
“I guess introductions are in order,” Morgan said casually. She leaned back, her eyes closed.
“Didn’t we already cover that?” Tomas said.
“Well, maybe without the stress of alien invaders around us,” Morgan said.
Ace walked over and shoved Morgan’s legs down so he could sit on the other side of the couch. She scowled.
“Yeah, because we’re real people persons,” said Ace.
“Beats the alternative we’ve recently been introduced to,” Ada said.
Tomas rolled his eyes. “Okay. My name is Tomas Ruis, a UEF Marine. This here is Tanisha Grimes, UEF Navy.” Tomas pointed to Tanisha, who offered a wan smile. Next to her, Francesca was cleaning a cut on Tanisha’s arm. Tomas pointed to the teen. “And the young one here is Francesca. I actually don’t know her last name.”
“DeLeon,” answered Francesca in a small voice, without looking up. Of all of them, Ben felt like she was struggling with everything the most, although Tanisha didn’t look to be far behind in that department.
“And she’s Ada Ericsson,” Tomas said, “but you already knew that. What else do you need to know?”
Ben took Ada for the impromptu leader of the group, although Tomas seemed comfortable speaking for everyone.
“Ben Saito, formerly a lieutenant in the UEF Navy,” Ben said, motioning to himself.
“And lately, decidedly less so,” Morgan said with a smirk. “Although all of us are decidedly less so than what we used to be.”
Ben nodded. “The UEF isn’t a fan of ours, but we can get into that later. On the couch over there is Morgan Denis and—”
“Ace,” Ace said. “Just Ace.”
Ada raised an eyebrow.
“No offense,” Ace said, clearly not bothered by causing offense, “But I don’t trust you people.”
Ben sighed. “Morgan and Ace are former undercover cops—”
“What did I just say about details!” Ace said.
“What’s your problem?” Tomas said.
“My problem is that I don’t trust you people,” Ace reiterated.
“Is there a particular reason, or do you just not like people on principle?”
Morgan chuckled. “Bingo.” She stood up. “This has been fun, but …” She glanced at Ben. “I think somebody needs to pilot this bucket.”
Ben nodded. He’d been expecting it.
“What about the autopilot?” Ace asked, in the dark as always.
“What about it?”
“Isn’t it working?”
“Barely,” Morgan said, walking up the stairs toward the cockpit, “or didn’t you notice we were getting by on shit and spit?”
“Shit, what is working on this boat?” Ace asked, exasperated. Almost as an afterthought, he offered, “Need any help?”
“What, and deprive you of the chance to make friends?” Morgan said over her shoulder. “I’ll be fine.”
Silence settled over the entire group for a moment before Ben said, “So, where were we?”
“We were all about to hold hands and sing, as I recall,” Tomas said. “I think Ace here was going to lead the chorus.”
“Screw off,” Ace said, offering Tomas the middle finger. “I know Ben just let it slide back there because he’s a big soft pushover, but I’m not just being an asshole for the shits and giggles of it. Our friend Bob back there—”
“Who’s Bob?” Tanisha asked.
“Oh, that’s one of the Oblivion cultists that Ace shot in the back of the head,” Francesca said matter-of-factly.
All eyes turned to her, then back to Ace.
“What? He had it coming,” Ace said. “The point is, once these things are fully seeded, whatever the hell that means, they’re nearly indistinguishable from human.”
“So you think one of us might be one of those things,” Ada said. “After all that?”
Ace shrugged. “I’m just saying it’s a long ride to Vassar-1 and we can’t fold jump. And call me paranoid, but I don’t want to be killed in my sleep and replaced by some alien asshole that looks like me.”
Ada stood up. “Ridiculous.”
Ace surprised everyone, including Ben, by hopping up from the couch lightning-fast and putting the barrel of his gun into Ada’s chest. “Sit down. We ain’t done talking yet.”
Seven
“Shit, Ace,” Ben said. Tomas had his hand on the butt of his own rifle. Things could go sideways here quickly. “Let’s just cool down for a second.”
Ada took a long look at Ace, then nodded at Ben and turned around and sat back down at the table with the others. “Out of the frying pan,” she said under her breath.
Ace didn’t lower his rifle, but he did plop back down on the couch as if nothing had happened.
“Sorry,” Ben said. “But Ace’s friendly demeanor aside, we do need to figure this out first. Because honestly, you shouldn’t trust us either.”
Tomas nodded, like he’d been about to make that very point.
Ben ran his hand through his hair. “So how do we do that?”
Ada snorted in laughter. “Seriously? You guys don’t know?”
“We know plenty about the Oblivion,” Ben said, quickly recounting what he’d learned about the cult’s operations on Earth, along with their assumption that the cult had had something to do with the disappearance of the Atlas, and was paving the way for the aliens. “But that’s all we know,” he concluded. “We don’t actually know much of anything about these aliens themselves.” He paused. “Well, beyond what we just saw back there on the station, but hell if I can piece much together from that.”
“This is funny,” Ada said. “You’re giving us shit about being one of those things, but you don’t even know how to detect one?”
Ben forced an uncomfortable laugh of his own. “Nope, not really. Sorry.”
“You guys use fire, right?” Ace said. “I noticed you used phosphorous grenades back there, and flamethrowers. Right? I know fire. Look at my face.”
He pointed at his scarred face with muzzle of the rifle, and looked like a crazy man as he did it, Ben thought. “Can you just put the gun away for a minute, Ace?”
Ace shrugged and put it across his lap instead.
“He’s right about that, at least,” Tomas said. “They hate extreme temperatures, or at least they avoid them. They seem to lose their ability to hold other forms.”
“Your father discovered it. Their weakness,” Ada said.
Ben felt something tighten in his stomach at the mention of his father. “So the Shapeless hate the hot and the cold. Hmmm.”
“You call them Shapeless, too?” asked Tomas, apparently just noticing the shared terminology.
“It’s what Bob called them,” answered Ben.
“Bob was a hell of a talker,” Ada offered.
“Until Ace killed him,” Ben said.
“Had it coming,” Ace reiterated. “All those Oblivion bastards have it coming.”
Nobody had anything to say to that.
“Okay,” Ben said. “So how are we going to do this?”
Ben looked over at Francesca, and thought about her helping Tanisha with her wound. A thought occurred to him. He walked over to the teenager and the injured cook. “Francesca, right?”
“Yeah?”
“Francesca, why did you stitch her arm?”
Francesca shrugged. “She asked me to.”
Tanisha nodded, rubbing the small bandage on her upper arm. “It was just a couple. Didn’t hurt.”
Ben nodded. “Sorry. What I meant was, why didn’t you use the flesh fuser? We should have one in our med kit.”
Francesca shrugged. “It’s all that was in there. A needle, some thread, a couple stim shots and some gauze.”
“No, there was definitely a flesh fuser in there. I would know. I used it myself before we left Earth.”
“Maybe you forgot to put it back?” she offered.
Ben shook his head.
“What does it matter?” Ace asked.
Ada seemed to grasp it right away. “It’s perfect for testing for Shapeless.”
The flesh fuser was a triage device to burn wounds shut. It was quicker than a needle and thread, and a longer-lasting solution than med foam. It was supposed to be used with a cooling topical ointment to limit the pain, but it was still a blunt solution for an emergency. And if the Shapeless showed their true form under extreme heat, it was a perfect, if painful, test.
“Seems like anything hot would do,” Tomas said.
He wasn’t wrong; there were other options. But the fact that the fuser was missing, and it was the one thing that the new people had touched on the ship, instantly put Ben on the defensive.
“I need to separate you. Now.”
Eight
Morgan glanced at the autopilot, which was working perfectly fine, as expected. One of the perks of being the only one on the ship who knew her true condition. It was a perfect excuse to get a little private time.
She opened a secure connection, then set up a protocol to erase all traces of it as soon as it was finished. Another perk of knowing the ship inside and out. Then she ran a scramble program to ensure no transmission would be detected while it was in process, on the off chance that one of their new passengers was kitted out to detect such a thing, which she seriously doubted. But no reason to take risks now.
“HUD, open secure communication with IA-267.” Morgan glanced behind her as she waited for a secure connection to be made. From what she could see through the open cockpit doorway and down the hall, she was alone.
“Connection to secure line IA-267 established,” replied Morgan’s HUD in her head.
“HUD, call Director Engano.” Morgan whispered. “Increase speaker volume to ten.”
“Go,” a middle-aged woman’s voice answered from the other end of Morgan’s HUD.
“Space is deep, dark, and cold,” Morgan repeated the code word meant to identify herself as an agent in a hushed tone. Even secure lines could be hacked by those determined enough.
“Identification number?”
“5724.”
“Agent Moreno, I’m a little busy. Can this wait?”
From the sound of her voice and her surroundings, Morgan could tell Engano was walking. Morgan was aware, of course, that anyone else in her position would be talking to a lowly operative handler, but she wasn’t anyone else. “Unfortunately not, Madam Director. I have urgent information, and I don’t know when I’ll be free again to deliver it.”
“Okay,” Engano sighed. “Proceed. But make it quick.”
Morgan looked back again to make sure the coast was clear. She could hear Ace raise his voice and Ben doing damage control. Their inquiry into whether one of their new passengers was Shapeless must’ve been getting chippy, just as she’d planned. That’s why she’d mentioned it in the first place.
Morgan cupped her hand over her mouth. “Remember our worst-case scenario? It’s happening.”
Engano was silent for about five seconds. “Are you sure? Something like this, you absolutely need to be sure.”
“We found the Atlas. It looked like it was ambushed at the scheduled fold jump point before LeFleur could rendezvous with them.”
“By who?”
“The alien threat, ma’am.”
“You better have proof of that, agent.”
“I do. Hold on, I’ll upload my eye camera footage now. HUD, upload and send footage from optical one and two over this secure line to Director Engano. Confirm upload.”
“Upload complete,” confirmed Morgan’s HUD.
“Footage received,” confirmed Engano. “I’ll take a look a little bit later.”
“Madam Director, with all due respect, I think you need to see it as soon as possible.”
“I will. As soon as I can. But right now things are bit…hectic around here. Hold on. What is it?” Engano was clearly addressing someone other than Morgan. “I know. I’ll be there in a second, I’m on a call. No, it can’t wait, just tell them to hang on for a moment. I don’t give a shit if he’s a senator, he can wait.” She turned back to Morgan. “As soon as I’m done here, I will look it over, Agent Moreno. Now, if there isn’t anything else. I have to—”
“There is something else, ma’am. These … this alien threat. They have the Atlas’ payload.”
“What? Are you sure?”
“I saw it with my own eyes, ma’am. The wreckage of the Atlas. I saw it in the sanctuary station’s docking bay before it was blown up. The rest of my crew was off trying to find the Atlas’ captain and crew as I checked the ship. According to the schematics we got, the payload was under the command bridge. Nothing was there, and the walls looked pried open.”
“Shit. That’s bad news, agent.”
“I know, ma’am.” Morgan quickly turned around. She saw someone coming up to the cockpit. “I have to go as well. We’re coming to Vassar-1. Please have my credentials ready.”
“Wait…what? That’s not the—”
“End call,” Morgan said as she turned her pilot’s chair around.
Nine
“What the hell are you talking about?” Ada asked. She and Tomas instantly stood from the table. Francesca and Tanisha remained seated.
Ben pointed behind him at the cockpit. “We were all up there when we came aboard. You lot were the only ones back here that could hide the fuser.”
Tomas looked like he was going to lose it. “That’s stupid—”
“I think whoever got that med kit must have thought about how we could use that thing,” Ben said.
“But anything in here—”
“You heard him,” Ace said, jumping off the couch and to his feet now, too. It was funny how seldom he actually wanted to do anything Ben asked, unless it involved being an ass. He was waving his gun around dangerously.
“We aren’t going anywhere,” Ada said firmly.
Tomas crossed his arms.
“You want me to shoot them?” Ace asked.
“I’d like to see you try,” Tomas snarled. He and Ada were both armed, and though Ace was the only one with his weapon in his hands, neither Ada or Tomas looked particularly concerned.
“I gave you the benefit of the doubt the
first time,” Ada said to Ace. “But I’m not doing it again.”
Ben frowned. “Just cool it, everyone. Nobody has to go anywhere.”
Did he really think they’d be okay with separating anyway? It was dumb. He’d just assumed he’d get more honesty out of a smaller group.
He looked at Francesca and Tanisha. “One of you got the kit first. Which one was it?”
“This is stupid,” Francesca said. The teen looked bewildered and scared.
“I did,” admitted Tanisha. “I saw it when we came in. Obviously I knew I was injured and grabbed it.”
“And why did you hide the fuser?” Ben asked steadily, watching her eyes closely.
“I didn’t hide anything!” Tanisha was sweating bullets. “The med kit opened up when I grabbed it. It’s probably somewhere on the floor.”
“That so?” Ace said, sounding less than convinced.
“Tell me a little about yourself, Tanisha Grimes,” Ben said. “Where are you from?”
“Atlanta,” answered Tanisha. “I grew up on East Apple, on the thirteenth level.”
“Where did you go to school?”
“Which grade?” Tanisha asked.
“Elementary.”
“Luther Elementary School on the twentieth level.”
“Do you have kids?”
“Three.” Tanisha wiped the sweat from her forehead. She wasn’t the only one, though. It was warm on the ship. Somewhere behind Ben, fans kicked on. With the ship running at full thrust and the fold engines offline, this was how it was going to be all the way to Vassar-1.
“Their names?”
“Portia, Dominique, and Harrison.”
“Ages, in the same order,” Ben continued.
“Really? This is—”
“Ages! In order.”
“Three, nine, and four. Happy?” Francesca asked.
“No, not at all.”
“This is ridiculous! I know her!” yelled Tomas.
“Yeah? Then help us,” Ben said. “Give her something that only the woman you know would know. Anything.”
“I’m not taking part in this sham,” Tomas said.