by Joshua James
“That’s right, son. Send my request to your commander. We’ll wait for his answer.” The alien pretending to be LeFleur had a gift for mimicry, which worried Ben a bit. He couldn’t help but shake the feeling that this was all a trick of the Shapeless. But what other choice did he have?
“Now we play the waiting game,” said Ben as he sat back in his chair and exhaled.
“The waiting game?” asked the yellow-eyed alien in LeFleur’s voice.
“It’s…we just wait for that answer. Don’t do anything.”
“How is that a game?”
“It’s not. Just—” Ben suddenly saw another signal, saying that they were getting another call. This time it was from a dreadnaught, not the two AIC fighters that flanked the transport.
“Ready?” asked Ben as he was about to answer the call.
“Yes, I believe so.”
Ben pushed the button and answered the call from the AIC dreadnaught. It was a video call, so he made sure to get out of view so that whoever was on the other end only saw the faux LeFleur.
“This is Commodore Thorne of the AIC Navy.” A short, portly, stoic-looking bearded man appeared in the video chat. Ben knew that it would probably be an officer in the call, but not the commander of the attack on Europa.
“Good day, Commodore. I am Senator—”
“I know who you are, Senator. We’ve met before, back on Vassar-1. What are you doing on Europa? We’ve received reports that you perished alongside the rest of the Senate in the Federalist attack on our home.” Thorne’s voice gave off the aura of authority, but there was a bit of mania hidden in it, Ben thought. But perhaps he was projecting based on what he’d been told about the man.
“Thankfully those reports were wrong, Commodore. Some of us took refuge in the bunker under the Senate Circle. We barely made it off-planet alive.”
“That’s strange. We haven’t heard of anything or anyone from home. It’s been radio silent since the attack.”
“We were too busy trying to survive to make calls.”
Thorne was silent for a moment. “Why are you here, Senator? We’re about to attack and overwhelm the Federalist base here. With all due respect, this is no place for you.”
“I’ve been asked to parlay with the UEF command at that base.”
“Who? Admiral Chevenko?”
That was the first good news Ben had heard in a while. The admiral was a family friend. He’d known him since he was a teenager. If Chevenko was in charge of the UEF Europa base, then that should make Ben’s job a little easier.
“Yes, Commodore, I’m to speak to the admiral. Orders from the rest of the Senate to try and put an end to this madness.”
“We’ll grant you passage, Senator,” Thorne said gruffly. “But come the morning, we’re attacking that base. If you don’t return or we don’t receive orders to stop, then I can’t help you. Best of luck, sir. End call.”
When the connection ended, the creature turned to Ben. “That was not so hard, Ben Saito.” The fake LeFleur smiled, pleased with himself.
“You’re right. Surprisingly, it wasn’t,” Ben conceded, but he was still skeptical of Thorne’s intentions.
The creature frowned at Ben. “You do not trust him?”
Ben was caught off-guard. Was that intuition, or was the creature still reading his mind? And was there anything he could do about it, if it was?
“I trust that he won’t disobey the same Senate that gave him his bars and stars,” Ben said. “Beyond that, I don’t trust him at all.”
The creature smiled. “So the subterfuge was a success.”
“For now,” Ben conceded. “But that was the easy part. Now we have to convince the UEF to let us in.”
“Leave that to me.”
Six
Archeon
Lee sat in the cockpit of his stealth interceptor. It sped away from Europa, through the newly-minted graveyard of ships and souls just outside Europa’s orbit. He spun up the fold jump engines with a course for the often-forgotten planet near the edges of human-occupied space, Archeon.
According to what he was shown in his mind link with the yellow-eyed alien, Archeon—a desert mining planet long thought lost and defunct—was where the Herald Stone had landed. It was humanity’s first confrontation, first encounter, with the Shapeless. It was also where the biggest chunk of the strange rock could be found.
Lee’s plan was simple. He was going to land on Archeon near the Herald Stone. Then he’d take that Herald Stone and attach it to a missile. How’d he do that he hadn’t figured out yet, but he would. Last, he’d leave, doing this all as fast as possible, and head straight towards the Shapeless home planet and kill them. In the process, he’d save Earth and humanity, making up for all those he’d failed and lost under his various commands.
That was the plan, at least.
“Fold jump in five, four, three, two, one…” The AI in the interceptor counted down to the fold jump. Lee gritted his teeth and held on to the armrests of his pilot’s seat.
Suddenly Lee was pinned back in his chair. His surroundings started to distort, almost stretching out, like taut bungee cords. Out the front viewing window he saw nothing but a bright, almost blue-white light. The sounds he heard were beyond description. They were never meant to be heard by any living thing, the sounds of time and space bending to manmade will.
Just as suddenly as it had started, Lee and his interceptor came out of the fold jump. It was always a violent event: hence the need for mag bracelets and harnesses. The former commander shot forward against his restraints, then was pulled back to his seat in a whiplash-like movement.
As he tried to quell the nausea in his stomach, Lee looked out his front viewing window again and saw the orange planet, Archeon. It almost looked beautiful, like a big smooth marble, but there was a visible stain that broke up its otherworldly continuity. There was a massive black patch visible even from space.
“Ship, zero in on the Archeon mining base’s landing beacon, take us in,” ordered Lee as he got up from the pilot’s seat. The interceptor’s state-of-the-art operating system followed his command and started their approach to the planet.
Lee walked into the back of the ship. The first thing he needed to do was get changed. According to the readings when the interceptor came out of the fold jump, Archeon didn’t have breathable atmosphere, which wasn’t unusual for a mining planet. Only the miners and their families lived on them, often in enclosed facilities like those found on Earth’s moon.
The first suits worn by the first explorers to leave the Milky Way were clunky and cumbersome, with limited mobility and dexterity. Since then things had become a lot more streamlined. The pants Lee put on were no thicker or more obstructive than snow pants. The torso piece was as light and comfortable as a jacket. The helmet, attached to the torso to keep it airtight, was no bigger than a motorcycle helmet. The entire front half was a strong artificial glass, giving the wearer maximum visibility.
All suited up, Lee moved on to the armory as the interceptor shook and vibrated upon entering Archeon’s atmosphere. He pressed a button, opening up a metal-shutter-covered storage space. Once it opened, he surveyed the weaponry.
Choosing the right weapon was important but not easy. There were plenty of guns and explosives. But Lee knew that if he ran into Shapeless down there—and the odds were good—bullets weren’t going to do a damn thing, so he focused on the explosives. Once loaded up with grenades and charges, Lee searched for anything that shot literal flames, or a cold-cast gun. Neither was in the armory, but there was a shotgun with a choice of shells: flak shells, slugs, or explosive and incendiary rounds. Naturally he chose the explosive and incendiary rounds. Before closing the armory, he silently thanked the weapons specialist who’d loaded up the interceptor before it was gifted to him.
Lee’s stealth interceptor landed with a crunch on the planet’s surface. According to the navigation systems, he’d landed one hundred feet away from the defunct mining facility.
The loading ramp extended, and the doors opened up.
There was no way to not be struck by the eerie beauty of what Lee was confronted with as soon as he stepped out of the interceptor. Stretched out for miles and miles in every direction, the normally sandy ground of Archeon was glass. Not polished, cleaned, or treated, the glass looked rough, unrefined, almost like silver. It reflected the two suns in the sky, making it hard to see, but was undeniably stunning.
Lee stepped out onto the glass. Unsurprisingly it crunched under his boots. It felt uneasy and strange, as if the ground itself was fragile. The glass was, but under that were meters of piled-up sand.
“Ship, scan for abnormal energy or temperature readings.” Before departing the interceptor, Lee had connected his HUD to the ship’s operating system. He wanted to find that Herald Stone as quickly as possible and get off Archeon with that same haste. The faster he retrieved the weapon, the sooner he’d get to blow the Shapeless back to whatever hell they’d come from.
“I’ve detected a disturbance of this planet’s magnetic fields,” reported the interceptor’s AI.
“Place it as a waypoint and display on my visor,” ordered Lee. In a second a holographic path was laid out for him via his visor. All he had to do was follow the glowing neon-green line to its end, and that was where he’d find the Herald Stone.
With each step, each crunch, Lee’s heart rate rose. He had no idea what was going to be waiting for him, but chances were it wasn’t good. Just to be safe, he checked his newly-acquired shotgun and made sure it was armed.
It was a strange feeling, being so nervous and scared in broad daylight, though it was a healthy fear. Lee had both witnessed and literally physically felt what the Shapeless could do. He’d have to be a fool or suicidal not to be on edge, and it wasn’t long until his fears started to be confirmed.
About one hundred and fifty yards from the AIC stealth interceptor was a mass graveyard. Hundreds of skeletons, human skeletons, were stuck in odd anguished-looking positions, half-buried and encased in the glass. Arms, hand, faces, and legs stuck out of the shining ground. And in the distance, peeking over a hill, a sand dune was the top of what looked like a black obelisk.
Lee cringed with each step, worried he was stepping on a body. He looked down to help prevent that very thing from happening and noticed something odd—odder than skeletons half-encased in glass. He saw that the reflection of Archeon’s suns was gone. Instead, there was what looked like gray storm clouds. But when he looked up, he still saw a clear sunny sky.
“Ship, scan for lifeforms,” ordered Lee as he continued up the glass-covered sand dune, boots sinking as if walking in crunchy snow.
“There are one million five hundred and thirty two lifeforms in a fifty-yard radius around you, sir,” answered the operating system.
“Ship, exclude simple one-celled organisms.”
“There are thirty-three life forms in a fifty-yard radius, sir.”
Is that thirty-three Shapeless? Or other lifeforms?
Lee tried to reason away the possibility of running into the Shapeless. He had the tools to deal with them but still, not having to fight or run from one would’ve been ideal.
Breathing a little hard in his suit and helmet, Lee reached the top of the sand dune. At the bottom and slightly ahead, he saw the black obelisk that had turned out to be the Herald Stone. Next to it was a rover, the same he’d seen during the mind link. What he hadn’t seen before was how big this Herald Stone was. It rivaled a three-story building.
“How am I supposed to attach that to a nuke?” Lee had a bit of a problem to solve. There was no way he could transport the whole Herald Stone, let alone attach it to a weapon. So how could he still utilize it?
You’re going to have to break off the biggest chunk you can.
He had enough firepower on him to blow the stone to high hell. But he’d settle for blowing off a piece.
Lee kept walking towards the Herald Stone. As he got closer, he noticed two things. One, the glass was more firm, stronger, the closer he got. And two, there wasn’t sand underneath. There was a pond of black oil, constantly moving, oozing.
Knowing what the black oil was, Lee was careful not to break the glass. If he could get off the planet with the Herald Stone and without running into any of the Shapeless, he’d be happy. Still, he knew that when it came to those aliens, one had to expect the unexpected. He took out and held a grenade in his hand, ready to arm and use it.
Lee reached the Herald Stone. It was full of little holes, porous like a sponge. He didn’t notice until then, because he’d never gotten close enough, that there was writing etched into the stone between the holes.
“Ship, capture frames on timer for thirty seconds.” Lee instructed the stealth interceptor to connect to his suit’s helmet and take pictures of everything he was seeing. He figured if nothing else—even if his mission failed—he could send these images to the UEF and AIC and maybe, just maybe, translated, those writings had a key hidden in them to beat the Shapeless.
Out of nowhere there was a loud ringing noise. Everything within Lee’s helmet started to go haywire. The digital display was obstructed by static, including the bars that indicated how much air and power he had left.
“What the hell is wrong with this thing?” Lee, perhaps recklessly, tapped on his helmet with the grenade in his hand. He asked the question even though he knew what it most likely was: either the stone itself, or the creatures that lived within and around it.
Something undefined, something that Lee couldn’t quite put his finger on, urged him to touch the Herald Stone. It overwhelmed reason and logic. He dropped the grenade, not noticing that its impact cracked the glass below.
With his now free hand, Lee reached out for the Herald Stone. He didn’t withdraw it even when he saw the black oil oozing out of the holes, moving in globs on its own. Something told him he had to touch it.
Lee was surprised when his finger touched the Herald Stone. Part of it just crumbled off. It wasn’t the fragility of the massive rock that was necessarily surprising; it was the fact that, at the same time, it was solid. When he tried pushing his finger in, he was quickly met with dense resistance. Nothing he knew of had those properties or felt that way.
Fascinated by the Herald Stone, Lee didn’t realize that he’d picked up a passenger, at least not at first. One of the black globs of oil had slithered onto his hand. It wasn’t until he spotted it, and it grew in the blink of an eye and started to squeeze his hand, that the former captain realized he was in trouble.
“Shit!” Lee yelled aloud as he backed away from the Herald Stone. He backed up right into the cracks in the glassy ground that his own dropped grenade had made. It broke, and his left foot sank into the black oil beneath.
Lee was really in trouble, and he knew it. Not only was the Shapeless black oil enveloping his hand, it sneaked up and over his left foot, slowly making its way up his leg. He had to calm down so he could think of a way to get himself out of this terrible situation.
Step one was to control his breath. Lee was breathing heavily, hard and fast, as the black oil spread. He called upon his training and experience as a soldier and officer.
Once his breathing was under control, Lee assessed his situation. His ship was over a hundred yards away. If he didn’t get that Shapeless oil off him, he was as good as dead. And he still needed to get at least a large chunk of the Herald Stone back to his ship, and then off-planet.
When nothing more clever came to mind, he aimed his shotgun down at the hole in the glass his foot had made and started firing.
Incendiary rounds, explosive shells laced with white phosphorus, barreled out of Lee’s shotgun, bursting apart when they hit the black oil. With each shot the pond of oil got more and more agitated; its whole surface started violently vibrating. The spot where the shells made their impact dried up and hardened.
In response to their insidious little world being disturbed, full-grown Shapeless burst out of the glass ground
all around Lee. That he hadn’t counted on, but he was ready to fight. First, he took the still-hot barrel of his shotgun and pressed it against the oil on his hand, making it shriek and fall off. Then he did the same to the alien substance on his leg.
Free from the oil on his body, but far from free from safety, Lee was in fight mode, which he liked. He was still angry, and had to take it out on someone or something.
Lee tossed three grenades, each in a separate direction, as he ran toward his ship. It was odd. His body felt young again. Gone were the aches and pains that he’d picked up. Gone was the stiffness and loss of flexibility that came naturally with age. Why hadn’t he noticed this before, and how was it possible? At the moment those two questions were stowed away. He had some fighting to do.
The three grenades exploded, keeping some of the Shapeless chasing after Lee off his back. It wasn’t a permanent solution, but a way to keep the monsters at bay so he could focus on the ones in front of him and make his way back to his ship.
More Shapeless burst up out of the glass. One was right in front of Lee, sending him sliding backwards. He aimed his shotgun and fired an incendiary round into the newly arrived monster’s wide, shrieking mouth.
It became apparent to Lee that he was outnumbered as more and more Shapeless burst up out of the glass. He wasn’t going to make it back to the ship, the interceptor. As was often the case in war, he had to come up with a new plan.
“Ship! Start automatic takeoff procedures! Hone in on my—” Lee was in the middle of ordering the interceptor to come pick him up when he was interrupted by a Shapeless taking a swing at him with an arm lined with organic spikes.
Lee managed to duck the attempted impaling. He fired an incendiary round into the offender’s chest, but it was in such a strange unearthly shape that he didn’t know what to call where he hit. It killed the monster, but the problem with being outnumbered was that he had to defend himself from attacks coming from all sides, which of course was impossible.