Author's Note:
I'm very excited to present the first chapter of Son of the Spear. A big thanks to The Silent Warrior for taking time out of her busy schedule to beta-read for me. I hope you enjoy the beginning of what will be an epic trilogy featuring forbidden love, blood-soaked horror and tragic revenge. Enjoy!
The Crash
Flames roared into the night sky, belching thick clouds of smoke and noxious fumes as they fed on the silver fuel leaking from the shattered remains of the vessel. Metal debris and sizzling engine parts lay strewn along the gouge carved by the crashed ship, small fires dotting the charred landscape. The rains were late this year and if the sparks reached the dried plains, the entire valley would be set ablaze. The men stamped out the fires as quickly as they could, saving the water for the larger conflagrations. Dr. Maira Santillo tucked her auburn hair behind her eat and turned her gaze back to the humanoid – what was left of it anyway. The entire spine and skull had been ripped from the male's body with an incredible strength and viciousness that chilled her. She took pictures while her husband Juaqin scraped as many samples as he could from the corpse before Markus decided to drag them away. Even if she wasn't a xenobiologist, this was an incredible discovery. A sentient life form. Five fingers, five toes. An impressive musculature and bone structure. They hadn't been able to scan his internal organs yet, but Maira bet he held a few surprises.
Arturo pulled Juaqin aside, the rancher's teenage son Estevan tagging along to gawk at the remains of the dead alien. Maira listened to the men converse while she bagged the alien's weapons and trinkets attached to his armor. They could study these later.
"What did you find out?" Juaqin wiped the sweat from his brow and neck, his black, wavy hair damp as heat continued to pour from the burning vessel. They were close. Too close in his opinion.
"Not much. I don't see any other tracks except the ones left by that thing." Arturo gestured at the headless corpse. "The sheriff spoke with the docking station but they don't see any unusual activity around this area or in the skies. Whoever killed it is gone."
Juaqin cleaned the dirt and smudges from his glasses. "Whoever? You don't think this was an accident?"
Arturo's grim face darkened. "If you found a man next to a burning ship with his spine ripped out, would you think it's an accident?"
He's right, Juaqin thought. No way the crash could have done this. The body would've been thrown forward, not behind the ship. This thing died after the crash.
Arturo placed a hand on Juaqin's shoulder and leaned in, his gruff voice lowered to almost a whisper. "If I may make an observation, doctor."
"Um, sure."
"On Aurelia, when I would take wealthy men on the trails to hunt exotic animals, they often took trophies, usually the head or the skin."
Juaqin's eyes widened. "Wait, are you saying someone took his skull as a trophy?"
Arturo shook his head. "I'm not saying anything doctor."
Before Juaqin could reply the older man walked off, his son trailing behind as he stared up at the burning ship. "Do you think any more are inside Dr. Santillo?"
"I don't know."
"I heard all of the adults talking. Markus is thinking about pulling everyone back in case it explodes. He'd rather let the Planetary Police Force deal with everything."
Maira paused her examination, frowning. What they needed were the scientists from the Tau Sigma IV outpost, not bored outsiders from Derrigan. She tuned out the rest of the conversation and looked over at dark entrance at the rear of the ship. There could be another in there, wounded or hiding. Or perhaps a piece of technology that could advance human technology by a century or more.
Maira slowly rose, waiting for the right moment. When Juaqin and the boy were distracted, she quickly headed for the vessel. Her husband's surprised shout called after her as she entered the open hatch, but she ignored them, slipping on her medi-mask to filter out the smoke and any foreign particles.
The inside of the ship was like an oven. Hot air enfolded her like a thick blanket and sweat beaded across her forehead. She headed for the bridge, hoping for at least a token to bring back with her. Barely a minute inside and her clothes were already clinging to her tan skin. The ship was dark, faint orange lights pulsating within the strangely textured walls. A warm fog swirled around her thighs as she hurriedly moved towards the front of the ship, the sane part of her brain screaming at her that she could be shredded into charred hunks of meat at any second if the ship exploded.
Maira cried out as she stumbled, wincing as the hot floor stung her arms.
A low, chattering rasp made her freeze. She looked around, her eyes widening in disbelief as the fog parted where she had fallen, revealing another one of the creatures. It lay curled up on the floor, Maira's feet laying across it's limp thighs. The alien stared back at her with glazed, half-opened eyes, as if Maira were not really there. Blood dripped from its hideous mandibles and sharp fangs. It groaned again and closed its eyes. Maira's heart nearly leapt into her throat as she scanned the body for wounds. It was a she. And she was pregnant. She could hear shouts closing in and soon several men swarmed around her, cursing in anger at her and then shock when they noticed the female.
Maira jumped up, her mind racing. "Help me get her out of here!"
Juaqin fought his way through. "Maira, what in God's name are you doing?!"
"I found another. A female. She's pregnant and she's dying."
"What?!"
"We need to get her to the med bay now!"
It took four men to carry the female out. Markus was red-faced, but smart enough not to yell at her. She had a patient. No one told her what to do when someone's life was at stake. They loaded the female onto a transport and raced back to the settlement. By the time they arrived, Maira was losing hope their patient would survive. With the driver's help they placed her on an operating slab. Juaqin began administering fluids while Maira kept pressure on the chest wound.
"Is the log on?" she asked.
"Yes." Her husband was feeding the blood samples into the sensors.
They could only apply basic aid until the computers analyzed the blood. The possibility that they may have already introduced a virus or foreign bacteria either to the female or to the colony niggled at the back of her mind. "Two puncture wounds to the chest, all the way through, possibly damaging the lungs and rib cage. The wounds are evenly spaced and suggest a sharp, bladed weapon. Dr. Santillo has inserted an intravenous drip and I am applying pressure to the wound." She looked over to her husband. "What's the status on the fetus?"
He pulled up a hologram from the small, circular monitors he'd attached to the female's stomach. "The fetus is undergoing acute stress and may not be getting enough oxygen. It has not yet oriented itself into the birthing position, which leads me to suspect it is not yet fully developed. That said, it's size and organ development suggest it may be able to survive outside of the womb. There is also some sort of rigid membrane surrounding the fetus and an unidentified growth on its abdomen. There is no sign of a placenta."
Maira placed an oxygen mask between the female's mandibles. Sensors Juaqin had begun placing all over her body indicated she needed more than the average human. She had yet to regain consciousness since they'd found her.
Her husband analyzed the sensor readings as they fed into the computer screens. "Bruising, a broken wrist, fractured ribs, internal bleeding…"
The heart monitor began to shriek as the female's pulse suddenly dropped. CPR and defibrillation was out of the question. Chest compressions would exacerbate the wound and the electrical shocks would kill the baby. Maira cut a hole in her throat, feeding a tube to one of her lungs. The monitor continued to scream, the flat line blaring at her. "Get the adrenaline!"
"That won't help!"
Maira reached for the drawer, but Juaqin stopped her, grabbing her by the shoulders. "Stop it! The female is dead. We can save the fetus, but we have to hurry."
She didn't argue, hurriedly prepping for the emergency C-section.
Despite having delivered several babies, her heart hammered inside her chest. She quickly tied her hair back and snapped on her surgical gloves. They didn't have the exotic equipment that the inner systems had. And what they did have was barely enough to get by. Maira picked up a scalpel, pausing as Juaqin's hand grabbed hers and gave her a reassuring squeeze. A surgical mask covered his face, but his brown eyes smiled from behind his glasses. "You can do it, honey."
She nodded and took a deep breath, slowly releasing it as she cut a horizontal line just above the pelvic bone. Maira quickly cut through the layers of skin and muscle while Juaqin stood over her shoulder, watching the monitors above for signs of fetal distress. "His heart rate is still high… since he's not directly connected to his mother, the amniotic fluid may hold enough oxygen and blood for him to survive for a little while..." her husband's soft voice was soothing and she used it to focus as she cut through the uterine wall and the gelatinous orange membrane surrounding the infant. It was tough and leathery and Maira had to dig in to get through. Fluid and blood gushed from the final cut and she quickly pulled the infant by its legs through the wide slit.
It— he, she corrected herself— didn't make a sound and this worried her. She handed him to Juaqin, who laid him on a small table and vigorously dried him with a towel. They were rewarded with a weak, raspy warble and flailing limbs.
Juaqin breathed a quick sigh of relief behind his surgical mask, glancing up at his wife as she tossed her gloves into the trash and reached for a new pair. He glanced back down at the newborn, the last few hours suddenly washing over him, the exhilaration of saving the infant quickly replaced with a grim determination.
Small, stubby mandibles flexed around its wide, toothless mouth as its cries grew steadily stronger — a good sign. He quickly examined the hands and feet for any discoloration, fascinated by the tiny claws already developing. Juaqin slipped on his stethoscope, his eyes widening as he listened to the infant's rapid heartbeats. He remembered this was being recorded. "Hands and feet are slightly blue, pulse… relatively strong, although there appears to be a second heart so I'm unsure of the normal range." He gently tugged on the infant's arms and legs. "Reflexes appear normal. Skin color varies. As you can see, the stomach and chest are a pale yellow, while the arms, legs and face are a mix of tawny brown and dark green. Will check for signs of jaundice… respiration appears weak. It seems the atmosphere is breathable, but he may not be getting enough oxygen." He placed an oxygen mask over the squalling male's mouth and monitored his lungs. They needed to figure out exactly what ratio of gases the alien infant needed or his lungs would collapse.
He gave it a generous score of five. On the Apgar scale the number represented a cause for concern but considering how much the infant had been through and yet still managed to turn out this healthy was cause for hope, however slight.
Juaqin glanced over at Maira again. She was concentrating on the dead mother, drawing milk and tissue samples from the female's swollen breasts. It was just like her, to think one step ahead and see another's needs beyond simply aid. Breathing was just the first step in the long, perilous road to keeping the infant alive and healthy. He would need food, and based on the size of the male they'd found at the crash site — he was easily over two meters tall — he would need a lot. Soon.
Because they lived in ranching settlement with many young families and couples, they'd been granted an incubator. Juaqin place the tiny, whimpering infant inside and sealed it shut, hoping the heat would soothe him to sleep while they figured out what to do next.
The doctors quickly scanned the female's body then bagged and wheeled her to the nearby mortuary for storage. The body would be frozen and preserved for further study. Right now they didn't have time for a thorough and prolonged examination and they needed to step back and assess the mountain of data they'd already collected. On top of that, they need to figure out appropriate nutritional alternatives. If they didn't find them soon, the baby would starve to death.
\\'/
Maira's forehead scrunched in worry as she considered the possibility that foreign contaminants may have been introduced into Eladoro. She would need to scan everyone who'd come in contact with the aliens and the ship and vaccinate the infant as soon as possible.
"Maira?" her husband's voice pulled her back to the present. "You okay?"
"Yeah." She rubbed her puffy eyes and tired face, glancing at her data slate to see what time it was. It was dawn on Navarra, but the Terran cycle indicated that a full Earth day had come and gone. Either way she'd been up a long time. Terran Standard Time, or TST, was the 24-hour day/night cycle that every human in the galaxy followed, no matter what world a person inhabited. Navarra's synchronous orbit around the gas giant Nephele lasted about 44 hours. For almost 22 hours, the moon was plunged into complete darkness except for the light reflected off Navarra's sister moons. The side the settlement lived on was able to enjoy direct sunlight, while the other half of the planet, still largely unexplored, was lit only by the sun's light reflected off Nephele.
"I'm just tired."
"You want to sleep?"
She shook her head. "We need to find the formula. Human milk might sustain him but we can't risk exposing him yet. There appear to be several key elements missing from bottle formula—"
"Okay, okay," he said, gently cutting her off. "I know. We've gone over it several times."
He noticed her watching the sleeping infant inside the incubator. The black masses on the sides of his head had dried to form distinct, rubbery black tubes a couple centimeters long. Unlike its mother, who possessed a short crest across the top of her forehead, the infant was bald with a long sloping forehead and flat face, a physical indicator of gender perhaps. A complex mouth and throat structure allowed it to smell while it breathed.
"If we don't find something soon…" she looked at him, her light brown eyes pinched with anxiety. Wispy strands of auburn brown hair had escaped her hastily created bun. He reached over and gently looped them behind her ear. "Don't worry. We'll figure something out."
She smiled and laid her head on his shoulder for a moment. When she sat up she had a puzzled look on her face.
"What?"
"He needs a name. We can't just keep calling him 'infant.'"
Juaqin frowned. For all intents and purposes, they had just become parents. He'd seen the way Maira looked at the baby and how determined she was to find food for him. They'd been trying for their own children for three years now. Despite his wife's dedication to science, there was no way she would hand him over to a lab to be poked and prodded. Anxiety tightened his chest. He was a dad. To an alien. If everything hadn't felt so real he'd swear it was a bizarre dream.
"Um, I'm not very good with names, so…"
"I'm not sure yet. I'd like to get to know his personality before we decide," Maira said as she turned back to her computer screens.
His comm beeped and Juaqin saw that it was from Markus. He was the unofficial town leader, nominated and sworn in during the drunken celebration of the first year anniversary of the colony. The original mayor had left the day before without a word and returned to his desk job on Regulus. Nobody missed him. He stood and walked a few steps away. "This is Dr. Santillo."
"Doc, we got a problem."
"What do you mean?"
"The ship, the body… they're gone."
\\'/
Juaqin slipped into the hallway and sealed the door shut behind him. "What do you mean they're gone?"
Markus' gruff voice was laced with frustration. "As in they-vanished-into-thin-air gone. After you left, we pulled back to the ridge, debating whether or not to call the PPF and then all of the sudden, there's white noise and an explosion."
"An explosion!?"
"It's worse than it sounds. It was sorta like an explosion of light or electricity. Everyone felt a strange tingling go through their body right before it happened. When the dizziness wore off and we could see again, there was nothing left but a charred hole."
"Is anyone hurt?"
"No. I ordered everyone to go home. I'm not taking any chances. The sheriff wants to contact the PPF but we're not sure what to tell them… Doc… Doc? You there?"
Juaqin ran his hand through his hair, his mind racing. "Yeah, yeah…"
"What's wrong?"
"I need to ask you a favor."
"What happened?" Markus' voice took on a hard edge. Some people saw that as a sign of anger. Eladorans knew it meant he was being protective. The man had a temper but he was just and his leadership had seen them through some rough times.
"Don't call the police."
"What? Why?"
Even though he knew Maira couldn't hear him, his voice dropped to a whisper. "I need you and everyone else to keep quiet about the aliens we found."
He heard Markus inhale sharply. "You mean Maira saved the other one?"
"No, just the baby. The female's wounds were too severe."
Markus quietly cursed. "Why not let the scientists take it? Maira's always complaining about her outdated equipment. You could trade it for—"
"No. There's no telling what the outpost or Nebular Enterprises will do with the infant. Besides, with the way my wife is looking at it there's no way she'll give it up without a fight."
"Christ, sounds like Anna."
Juaqin smiled. Markus' wife had once fought off a black-eyed panther when it had attacked one of their young children. People said Anna's punches were the reason why the panther's eyes were black. It wasn't true, but it was fun to tell. Juaqin waited for Markus' decision, strangely anxious.
A long sigh of defeat sounded from his comm. "Alright… I'll tell everyone to say it was a human ship or meteor or something and keep their mouth shut about the rest. You owe me big time, Juaqin."
"I know. Thanks, Markus."
"We'll be in touch. I hope you two know what you're getting into."
Juaqin signed off and leaned against the wall, rubbing a hand through his hair. So do I.
Author's Note:
And there you have it, folks. Thanks so much for reading and let me know what you thought in the comments! If you would like to learn more about the world of Navarra, please visit my profile page. I'll be adding updates about the story and the moon-world over the next several weeks. Also feel free to message me any questions you may have.