Arrival, page 4
part #1 of Captured Earth Series
All is certainly not lost.
This world, this species, still has a chance.
ADIRA
I regain consciousness with a violent heave of my body.
I can’t see anything. My vision is blurry and everything burns.
I choke, coughing up water as I fight for air.
What’s happened?
Where am I?
And then it all comes rushing back.
The machine.
It fell.
We were drowning.
How did we escape—
The eyes.
Molten lava.
I cough again, pulling huge breaths into my lungs, but it feels like my airway is blocked even though I’m fighting to breathe.
As the tears in my eyes finally recede a little, fear grips me instead.
All I see is black.
It’s over my mouth, in my nose…
The dark suit.
The man covered in black.
He’s here.
He’s real.
My gaze locks with those fire pits of his and I forget to breathe.
They’re abnormal.
Slitted.
Like a reptile’s.
Alien.
A scream barrels through my throat, rocking my body and I realize the black thing that’s in my nose, my mouth—it’s coming from him.
It retracts like ferrofluid back onto his body and my eyes widen as I scramble backward.
Alien. Alien.
It’s all that repeats in my mind as I scramble to get away.
The alien doesn’t move.
Those slitted eyes are trained on me.
Vaguely, I am aware of more of them rising from the water. They have Mina and Sam—both limp. Both unresponsive.
At the sight of me, one of the alien’s lips pulls back to display sharp fangs.
For a moment, I’m caught between not wanting to leave Sam and Mina but all I can think of is that I need to run.
And so I do.
My body feels like a sorry excuse of flesh and bones but somehow I rise on my feet and begin to run.
It’s strange using my limbs after being stuck in the machine for so long and I stumble a few times before my legs finally begin to cooperate.
I have no idea where I’m going. All I know is that I have to get away from here.
There is chaos.
It’s like my mind is a frazzled wreck.
I cannot understand what is happening. All I can concentrate on is the emotions going through me.
My lungs are burning.
And so is the water.
I am dimly aware of this as my feet take me over the rocks and toward the only place in this barren wasteland that I have a chance of being safe.
A copse of trees that was spared from the destruction around us.
There’s another larger forest off to the side but if I change direction now, I don’t think I’ll make it.
I glance behind me and more terror fills my soul.
The red-eyed alien is looking at me as he rises to his feet. There are sharp blades on his arms now and his lips are pulled back to display vicious-looking fangs too.
Shit.
He doesn’t move and, for a moment, I think he is not going to chase me.
But then he puts one foot before the other, and another…and then he is running.
Terror fills me so much I can’t even scream.
Instead, I choke on my own fear as I pick up the pace.
Those vicious teeth of his is the last image I see before I slip beneath the cover of the trees, terror making my whole body quake.
I run and stumble, sharp rocks and branches tearing at my skin.
I am weak. Tired. But I continue on until I spot a tree.
It has a hole big enough for me to climb into and even as I run toward it, fear makes me question myself.
It’s not a good hiding spot.
It really isn’t.
But do I have a choice?
My breath hitches in my throat as I slip inside the tree and I don’t dare to even breathe.
If I make a sound…he’ll hear me.
A scream echoes through the air and I gulp down a sob.
It’s coming from near the lake and I wonder if it’s Mina or Sam.
As another sob jerks through me, I slam my hand over my mouth, my eyes wide as I stare ahead through the gap in the tree.
It’s quiet for a few moments, the only sound being my breath in my own ears.
And then I hear it.
A twig snapping.
My breath stops.
I know it’s not an animal.
I just know.
Another twig snaps and I press my hand down harder over my mouth.
He’s going to find me.
Chapter Seven
FER’RO
I stare at the female as she runs away.
For a moment, I cannot move.
All I can see before me is a replay of the war…images of our species dying…our females dying.
The memories are fresh, possibly because it’s like it happened yesterday.
To my mind, to my ba’clan, it was like yesterday. For even though it took many moons to get to this new world, I had been sleeping all along.
“Female.” I thrum. “The being is female.”
Ga’Var, my womb mate, lets out a surprised trill. He glances back at our brethren rising from the water and he stares at the beings in their arms.
“Females.” He thrums. “They are females.”
I can sense the heightened emotion that passes through us all.
Females. And one is so scared, she is running away from us.
She stumbles as I watch her and her frightened gaze turns my way. Our gazes lock.
She is afraid of me.
Her eyes are wide. The brown pits are much too big for her sunken face and they are full of expression.
She is not simply scared.
She is terrified.
I must go after her.
I rise and take a step forward, then another, and then I am jogging after the female.
I could catch her now. Speed is not a hindrance.
The gravity on this planet is slightly lesser than on Edooria.
I can feel it in the way I move across the surface—felt it the moment we broke into the planet’s atmosphere.
I can move even faster than I would on our planet.
But I do not want to scare the female more than I already am. So I purposefully slow down. I let her run.
Behind me, Ga’Var follows.
I click at him. “Be cautious.”
He responds with a click of his own.
We do not know this world. It is uncharted. And though I suspect there is not much that can harm us on its surface, we have just arrived.
We cannot throw caution to the wind.
As the female retreats, I extend my senses to the world around me.
The ground is soft, the atmosphere quiet.
Before us is a small gathering of large plants that the female disappears behind.
Trees, I realize, as I come upon them.
They are different from trees on Edooria.
Green leaves, not gray.
Short, not tall.
Thin and wiry, not thick and unmovable.
It is strange foliage.
Just as small and frail as the inhabitants of the world, it seems.
The star this planet orbits is also…bright.
Too bright.
Painfully so.
I can sense the high temperature about me even while my ba’clan cover me.
If not for them, the brightness would also be hurting my eyes, but I know I will adapt to it in time.
That is…if we stay here.
If this species accepts us. Accepts our help.
Small branches snap underneath my feet as I enter the undergrowth.
It is eerily quiet and the silence seems out of place.
No small animals are hiding here. Only small insects.
Bugs.
One catches my attention as it climbs over some fallen leaves.
“It’s quiet,” Ga’Var clicks.
I know he is thinking the same thing.
It’s quiet like Edooria was in the end. When almost everything had died.
But…there is a big difference between Edooria and this strange new land.
Despite that this planet is ravaged…I still sense…hope.
“There is still hope.” The message leaves my throat in a low tone.
It’s not just the fact that females are still alive on this world.
Glancing up, I notice the wind rustling the frail-looking trees.
Frail, but they still stand, reaching toward their star.
This planet hasn’t passed the point of no survival.
A soft sound, like the whimper of a small creature, catches my ears, and not far behind me, Ga’Var stills.
“There,” he clicks but I’m already looking in the direction the sound came from.
It’s a tree with a hole in its side, barely big enough for a small animal to slip through.
I sniff the air and I catch the female’s scent.
An unexpected growl starts in my throat that I promptly kill.
She is there.
Within the tree.
Ga’Var sniffs. I know he scents her too.
I motion with my hand that he should go the other way.
She is so terrified of seeing me, seeing both of us will only make things worse.
We need no words. He understands and I’m aware of him moving off to the side.
I sense the female’s eyes on me as I move in front of the hole. I’m still several lengths away from her location but that doesn’t stop the sweet scent that floats toward me through the air.
I stop in my tracks.
I know that scent.
It’s one I know well.
The scent of fear.
My lips pull back from my teeth a little and it is a conscious effort of mine not to snarl.
The scent is almost overpowering.
One that appeals to my baser instincts.
She is prey.
A lesser developed species.
No ba’clan.
No armor.
Basically bare, with no obvious ways of defending herself.
Off to the side, Ga’Var snarls and my eyes find him.
He smells the female’s fear too.
Rek.
I do not need him to lose control right now.
I click at him, pulling my lips back to show the tips of my fangs, and his gaze falls from mine.
She is prey. But not our prey.
I have to fight the urge to hunt even as I stare at my brother fighting the same.
His muscles are primed and I realize in horror that he must be the mirror image of myself.
We knew this was a possibility…that the planet the Gryken targeted next might have inhabitants that might clash against our senses…but it was a risk we had to take.
I can feel the tension in my body as I turn back to stare at the hole the female has hidden herself in.
Her fear scent intensifies and I pray she does not run at this moment.
For if she decides to flee when we are in this state…
I cannot promise control.
I will hunt her…and I will catch her.
“Fer’ro.” Ga’Var calls my name and I snap back to reality.
Now he is the one reigning me in and I watch his gaze fall to my arms.
My hackles have risen, the dangerously sharp ends pointing outward as if I am about to attack the female.
Realization sets them back down.
I would never do such a thing.
Even though her fear scent makes me want to hunt her, that is where my instincts end.
I would never harm a female. A male of her kind, however…I couldn’t promise the same mercy.
There is silence once more and I know the female is listening to us.
Taking a few steps forward, I crouch, my gaze searching the darkness of her hiding spot.
It isn’t hard to find her in the shadows.
She has no camouflaging ability even though her skin is so frightfully pale.
I would have thought she’d become translucent to mask herself…but no.
She is right there.
As soon as she spots me she jerks in surprise.
Her hand lifts. She is holding something.
Pointing it towards me in what should be a threatening manner if her hand wasn’t shaking so much.
It is…a stick.
“Su-tay ah-way fu-rom mee.” Her voice shakes as she speaks but her voice…
The melody catches me unaware.
It is like a flying creature whistling. Just like the small luu that lived on Edooria.
I glance at Ga’Var and note his surprise as well.
The female stares at me with those wide brown eyes of hers, her arm still extended with what she must think is a weapon.
Her other hand is over her mouth, the digits long and scrawny and that sweet fear scent of hers permeates the air so much I have to close my nostrils against it.
She is…helpless.
If this is any indication of the rest of her species, no wonder the Scrit walked without its shields.
How frightful had it been when the Scrits had fallen to the surface of this planet? How terrifying had it been for this species?
Edooria had fought.
Had this species even been able to put up a fight at all?
“It is okay,” I click. But my words only make the female retreat farther into the darkness even though there is nowhere to go.
“I will not harm you.”
I stretch my arm out to her and she inhales sharply, wincing as if she expects some kind of attack.
The horror in her gaze as her eyes rove over me is off-putting.
Am I really that terrifying?
I glance down at myself.
There is nothing visible of my true form. All she can see is the ba’clan.
Possibly, they scare her.
I imagine what I must look like to a creature that has never seen my kind before.
My ba’clan create a near impenetrable shield and coat every section of my body like dark fluid.
Maybe I should retract…
The symbiotes sense what I need before I can even send the mental command, and I feel them pulse against me.
I consider pulling them back from my face so she can see there is nothing to be afraid of, but I hesitate.
We know nothing of this planet except that it has water.
The three native lifeforms seem similar enough, outwardly, to Vullan-kind.
Smaller, similar, but not the same.
I do not know if I can breathe the air or if the ba’clan are the only things keeping me alive.
But as I look into the eyes of the female, the decision is easy.
I will take the chance. If anything happens, the ba’clan will prevent critical damage.
I close my eyes and send a signal to the ba’clan to retract from my face.
They do not immediately respond. Unsure themselves.
My eyes open when I feel them begin to move and I take my first breath.
I pause for a moment, waiting, but nothing happens.
Off to the side, Ga’Var clicks, pleased.
We can breathe the air. If not, the ba’clan would have moved back into place.
My gaze finds the female again but she does not move. Instead, her eyes are even wider now and I am amazed at their propensity to enlarge.
Her pupils are round and I wonder if she can see well.
Is that why her eyes are getting bigger by the second?
I retract the symbiotes from my hand, and motion to her again.
Immediately, her gaze grows suspicious.
I recognize the look in those strange eyes of hers.
She is a different species.
Emotive.
But her gaze communicates one thing.
She has seen too much pain.
I have as well.
From the corner of my vision, Ga’Var approaches.
His ba’clan have retracted too and I hear a thrum of pleasure in his throat while breathing in the fresh air.
But his movement causes the female to retreat even more and I click in annoyance at him.
I motion to her once more with my hand and her gaze drops to it.
She stares at my hand for so long that my own gaze falls to it too.
It is different to her own pale, bony one.
My four digits are longer, thicker, and it seems she is missing a joint in hers.
When my eyes meet hers once more, the suspicion in her gaze has only increased.
A click leaves my throat.
My tactic isn’t working.
She doesn’t trust us.
The little female is guarding herself with her stick, and she will not move.
She is not leaving her hiding place.
Chapter Eight
ADIRA
I don’t know what to think as I stare at the alien in front of me.
His strange skin has retracted and I realize it is not skin at all but some kind of…suit?
It seems to move without any external input from him, which is creepy enough because I am positive it was in my mouth—down my throat!—earlier.
What sort of suit can do that?
He is closer now but at least he hasn’t tried to force me out of my hiding spot.
And he is not alone.
Another of his kind is nearby. I caught sight of him with a fleeting glance.
They are large. Well over six feet tall and their actual skin is just a few shades lighter than the pitch black of their “suits.”
Their faces are…humanoid…but so, so different.
Their faces are filled with ridges.
The one in front of me, staring at me so intently with his arm still outstretched, has a set of ridges running down his forehead. They continue down his nose and another set runs along each prominent cheekbone and back toward his ears.
His ears are different too.
Longer.
Pointier.
The sides of his head are bald. Along the top runs a narrow section of thick, black locks that are secured together behind his head.
He is attractive.
Surprisingly so.
For a moment, I forget my fear.
I can only stare.
I snap out of it when the alien sniffs. His lips move a little as he does this and my gaze focuses on them.
