Chapter 2 - a

Kim woke up in a muck of dirt, water and a strange viscous jelly all over her suit. The floor was hard and cold to the touch and she struggled to get to her feet. Her head spun. Whatever she could see – the interior architecture of an organic vessel – was thanks to a single fluorescent white light at the top of the ceiling. One corridor led to a brighter room, the other led to complete darkness.

"Hello?" she called, with a little idea of where she was.

She had wondered about this moment, she had even dreamed of its possibility. Now, it was very real and she was desperate to understand how, and why she was aboard the alien craft. And why her?

Putting the questions in the back of her mind she went on the quest to explore the ship, and began walking cautiously towards the more brightly light area.

"Is there anyone here?" she asked, hoping for something to react to her presence.

The next room was filled with moving lights floating in the mid-air. Stars, lines, planets and circles were composing a giant three-dimensional interface over a console as large as her quarters aboard the Archimedes. Mesmerized by the dancing lights, she only began to pay attention to the people operating the console when they took notice of her.

A white, stern face with sunken black eyes peered at her from across the circular table.

The air refused to come in to her lungs, and her stomach knotted.

"Hey." It was all she managed to speak.

The obviously alien being stood with a strong yet fluid motion, clothed in a black tunic, and high as at least two meters. The blue and green lights reflected on his hairless skull. Kim heard footsteps behind her and another one was approaching from the corridor, equally as frightening yet statuesque in appearance. It had the physical presence of a man, the very familiar traits of a human's face like that of ancient marble statues. Standing two heads over her and just at the reach of her fingers, he looked into her eyes. Kim noticed that his were completely black, and the iris was only slightly brighter. Through his expression she felt more than saw that her presence was disrupting, but he didn't show any sign of hostility.

"Who are you?" she asked, desperate for answers. Those big answers every human sought when they wondered about their own existence.

The tall statue-like man blinked and looked across her shoulder to the holographic display. It changed at the command of the other alien who was controlling the map. Stars shifted and realigned to form a different pattern. Constellations had to be guessed and names were written in strange Sumerian-type symbols. Stepping closer, she tried to make sense of the display, apparently a navigation computer. Although unable to read a thing it was evident that she knew what she was wondering.

Turning towards the alien "commander" she uttered the name with as much care as she could, recalling all the different pronunciations she had heard over the years.

"Ah-nu-nah-kee?"

The alien behind her kept looking at what was now a model of the Sol system. It zeroed in on Earth. Kim sighed, feeling her chest sink in at the sight of the familiar planet. She wished they would show her the way they had visited her home thousands of years before. Instead, the view panned towards a formation of bright lights moving in gracious arcs towards Earth. That was the invasion, what was happening now, with the Grays. Their ships looked different.

"What's going on?"

Not sure that they would understand English, she hoped they had some sort of telepathic way to communicate. As she concentrated her thoughts towards the people around her she heard the soft yet deep voice of the alien behind her, uttering hesitantly.

"Other, take... planet. Your..." he waved his arm at the holographic emitter and it showed Earth's shadowed side.

Looking at him with amazement, Kim worked hard to understand.

"Who is taking my planet?"

"No," he said, impatient. "Other you. Taking planet... now slaves. Asleep."

Kim scratched her scalp in total confusion. Earth's dark side was black, the continents were barely distinct from the oceans, there were no lights.

"Everyone is asleep?"

"Yes."

"That explains why we lost contact with Earth."

He didn't understand her and furrowed his hairless brow.

"We have to go back," she thought out loud.

"No," he said again, and strode towards the corridor. Turning to look over his shoulder, he waited for her to follow him. "Eridu- Earth is dead."

She bit her lips, feeling her heart sink. The words hurt, though coming from someone whose native language was a mystery.

"Why are the others using humans?"

It was difficult to keep up with a six-and-a-half feet tall man. He stopped for her to reach his level and resumed walking. The ship was larger than she'd predicted.

"Humans, prime organisms. We created you. They... the others, harvesters. They take human blood. They feed... Darkness."

The next room was a poorly lit space with what looked like stasis pods with yellow liquid inside.

"Can that help us fight the invaders on Earth?"

"No. No fight. No war."

"Then how do we save the rest of the humans?"

"It is too late for them. Not for you."

"Why are you helping us?"

Looking as earnest as he already was, he stepped forward and with his hands around her face, lead her firmly inside the dark room, wrapped a hand around her neck and pushed her in a stasis pod that opened upon approach. Kim panicked. What was this thing doing with her and why did it have to happen to her?

"No!" she protested, trying to slip away but his muscles were like steel. "What the fuck are you doing?"

The vat was illuminated with a yellow light, showing that it was full of a strange jelly inside. Was he going to drown her in that thing?

He tipped her off her balance, lifting her off the floor and she fell in the pod. There was no splash, she just sunk in the viscous yellow gel and couldn't get back up. Fear made her gasp for air but the pod was now closed. Her hands met the canopy over her and she spat air bubbles. Some of the liquid got into her mouth, it tasted like water and it was warm. Banging on the inside of the pod, she saw the alien look down on her, waiting. She was just going to end there, as simply as that. Her breathing reflex made her open her mouth and suck in the fluid around her, and her body started convulsing. Everything turned black after several agonizing seconds.


Chapter 2 - b

Hours had passed since dawn. Jonas was covered up to his knees with mud from searching the dig site, the tundra and the small caves where Kim could have taken shelter. The marines were restlessly patrolling the area as well, without luck. Ironically, the sun was up shedding warmth on his back as a sadistic reminder that it was safe for him to be outdoors without his suit. He cursed himself again for not going with her when she was about to leave the base. When something was on her mind, Kim had to see it through.

Jonas sighed, pulling off his gloves to rub the beading sweat on his forehead and the back of his neck. No one dared address him which made him even more helpless and guilty. He'd lost his squad mates, his brothers, without being able to do anything about it. The feelings were creeping up again.

The stone was now resting at the bottom of the pit, like it used to in the first place. But he had seen the video footage and the lightning strikes falling on it had something to do with Kim's disappearance. At least, he wondered, if she'd been struck they would have found a body by now. Unless it had been taken away by the wildlife. Even then, there would have been tracks and traces of carbon.

He brought up his hand-held display to view the data she had been compiling about the stones, those artifacts that were just too conspicuous to only be part of the natural rock formations. If there were more out there, they had to be part of a system, some sort of communication grid. How it could be activated was a mystery, but what had happened that night was probably tied to this research.

"She must've taken a nap in the caverns up north. The air scanners didn't pan out."

It was Makarand, followed by Adams and Devereaux, all three of them in full garb and rifles slung across their backs. Jonas shut off his holo-screen and turned to face them. They were aware of his sentiments towards Kim and how they would weaken his aptitude to fill his position.

"The drones can't pick-up signals from deep underground," continued Makarand, his voice going softer. "We just need to sit tight, find the most likely direction to start looking and send a team. But this colony can't survive without supervision. We need your head in the game, Commissioner."

"I'll do what needs to be done. For now, I need to know what the hell happened to her."

They all did. And the civilians probably wanted to help find her any way they could, and it was his job to assign them to their respective tasks. This kind of situation could very well cause a panic movement and more people could be lost without explanation.

With regret he got aboard the ship to man the supervisor's station. Sitting at Kim's desk, he put the headset to his left ear and entered his pass log-in handle in the terminal. The letter appeared in full screen size.

SPECIAL ACCESS CODE ACKNOWLEDGED.

ALL SECURITY CLEARANCE GRANTED.

GOOD MORNING, COMMISSIONER.

She had been the one he'd never hoped to find in his life, and now she was gone. After everything he'd been through, all the loss and the grief were taking their toll on him. He could have nothing. He could have no one.

No, he had to keep his mind clear of any emotional outburst. Any mistake could cost him and other people's lives. Drying his eyes was tricky. He couldn't use his sleeves and couldn't keep wet tissues around. Forcing himself to swallow his tears he began running the colony's roster lists and reviewing all working and non working personnel. Luckily, everyone was accounted for and staying indoors. Or maybe they were all still asleep, and those who were active probably didn't want to risk themselves outside. Supplies were high in stock, food was being processed and energy dispatch was maintained properly.

Did they even care that Kim was gone?

Her biotic transponder was out of range of the ship's detectors. A malfunction or battery depletion would have sent a definitive signal message, which was not the case apparently.

Bringing the remote-access codes in his pocket he left the station to get back to the base. If Kim had left important clues behind, he needed to know what she was on about. Her devices must have recorded something before the black-out.

But, stepping out in the hallway of the Archimedes, he met with Linda who was surprised to see him emerge from Kim's work place.

"Jonas, I just heard about Kim. What happened?"

"I'm still working it out."

"Do you think something may have taken her? An animal of some sort?"

He wished it wasn't. Humans didn't need a reason to go hunting.

"We'll let you know once we get to the bottom of it."

He turned away to walk out of the ship as soon as he could, but he felt a hand wrap around his arm to force him back. Jonas would have confessed that his nerves were sensitive right then, explaining why his training kicked in. He grabbed Linda's arm, twisted it around her back and placated her against the gray-white bulkhead. She squirmed with shock and pain, resisting his grip and then he realized he'd crossed the line. Jonas let her go and she turned around, leaning against the wall to rub her painful wrist.

"I'm sorry," he said, hesitant.

"So am I," said Linda, her eyes piercing his face. "We'll talk again, Commissioner."

She strode off, her footsteps seemed to be resonating in the whole ship. He wondered if he'd gone too far, or if he'd barely scratched the surface of basic human relations. He had to stop meddling with them.

Back in his cramped quarters, his terminal was still displaying his message inbox since the last time he had checked it. The last received memo was from Earth, obviously, but no one had signed it. It came from an official department of the Confederation, that was for sure.

GOOD MORNING, COMMISSIONER JONAS.

DUE TO LIMITED RESOURCES YOU ARE TO CEASE ALL CONTACT WITH EARTH UNTIL GIVEN NEW ORDERS.

HY-742 IS NOW DECLARED SELF-RELIABLE AND SELF-GOVERNED.

ALL FORMER-CSE ORGANS ON BOARD (MILITARY, SCIENTIFIC) HAVE BEEN DISCHARGED FROM GOVERNMENT AUTHORITY.

DEAL WITH PUBLIC RELATIONS AS YOU SEE FIT.

He'd never been given this much responsibility in his life. He was a soldier, goddammit. Until the very last day on Earth, nobody saw his value on this mission and suddenly, they wanted him to be the head of mankind's first colony in outer space. The questions had been troubling him for weeks. The first few days he'd dismissed the message as a mistake. A joke, even. He had sent an interrogative to check that the message was confirmed but he received no answer.

Would they react if Kim had disappeared? Even if they couldn't do anything from their end, they could at least show some support. Maybe he didn't want to communicate anything that had no substance. If he didn't know what was going on, he preferred to keep things under wraps until he could bring a complete report.

Using his credentials, he accessed Makarand's messenger account as well as Thordisson's. Had they just accepted being jettisoned like that for so long without saying anything to him? His earpiece chirped with an incoming call. He pressed the receive button.

"Kim? It's Stevens. Where have you been?"

"This is Jonas." He took a slow breath. "Kim is missing, Ben. I'm stepping in while we're searching for her."

"Are you kidding? What happened?"

"It's related to a magnetic storm. Any ideas?"

The man on the other side of the call seemed genuinely shocked and helpless. Jonas couldn't wait to close the transmission and get back to work.

"If she was outside during the thunder there's a chance she could just be disoriented from a light shock and got lost somewhere." He continued after Jonas had stayed silent with skepticism. "Shall I wrangle up a search party?"

"No. I need everyone to stay put until we find out what's going on. I'm counting on you to keep this situation contained from your end."

"Understood, sir. And... good luck."

This was his kind of job. Rescuing people, retrieving them from dangerous places. Yet he couldn't tap into his warrior instincts in this particular context, and it frustrated him to feel less efficient than what he was trained to be.

He didn't know what to look for when he got back to the base. Kim's belongings were still in packing cases and the bed had no linens. One section of the room was just digital display, the window which normally would face the underground was showing the Archimedes under a sunny sky. Marines were patrolling around it while mechs were moving crates towards the cargo hatch, what tools and materials were left from the construction work.

Jonas found the command console for the display, sat in front of the computer at Kim's desk and rewound the history recording until the night before. The day turned to night time, rain was pouring and lightning could be seen intermittently in the clouds. A buggy drove through the panorama and he felt a knot form in his throat. Its headlights disappeared over a hill, towards the north where the flashes seemed to originate. Minutes past without a single change, he switched on fast-forward, forcing his attention on pixel fluctuations, movements... For a second, the clouds shifted laterally then resumed their position. Playing back that portion of the recording, Jonas narrowed his eyelids and looked closer.

"What the hell...?"

A knock on the door made him startle and hit pause.

"Come in," he called and heard the door hiss open in his back.

"Commissioner." Without even looking he knew it was Corporal Vick Adams. His voice was a little hesitant but earnest. "Am I interrupting..?"

Getting up, Jonas followed his gaze. The wall display showed the same recording and the dark shape that he was tracking when he thought the clouds were displaced. A large, oval, black disk dominated the sky over the Archimedes. It seemed much more obvious on a big screen.

"Is that what took her?"

"I don't know what it is," answered Jonas. "It coincides with the time we went out after Kim."

The young man came closer to the picture, clasped his hands in his back and his expression was mixed.

"Do you think she knew about this thing yesterday? She seemed convinced something was out there last night when she got our sentries to let her through."

And he had let her go despite all the warnings, Jonas thought, because he wanted her to be free to make her own decisions. Because he loved that about her.

"We have to assume this thing will return," he said trying to sound tough. "And we'll need to be ready."

"And they got Kim. We have to assume that until we find her... or her body."

He turned away, his mouth pinched shut which Jonas interpreted as contained anger. The lines on his forehead were also a sign of sentimental involvement. It was possible that Kim touched other people the way she had affected him, however knowing he wasn't the only one made it hard to accept.

"Corporal," he said before taking a slow breath. "Did she say something to you?"

Adams hesitated.

"Nothing of relevance, sir."

Everything was important to him right now. He needed to know. Adams needed to understand how important she was, and that went far beyond their common need for comfort by fishing for information in her quarters.

"Don't be stupid. That's the last thing I said to her. And then I just watched her leave. You'd think the least I could do was to go along and help."

"Then we'd be missing a supervisor and a commissioner. With all due respect." Adams scratched an itch on the back of his neck. "Do you know if she was close to anyone from the payload? Any friends we should investigate?"

Jonas thought immediately of Thordisson. His constant distrust of Kim in regards of their budding relationship could be a cause for extreme action like this. But Jonas had known of the scientist's whereabouts the entire night before. If he hadn't dared show his face that day it was because of his ambiguous attitude and there was no need for his sour remarks.

Kim's lab partner was unrelated, then there was Stevens who was apparently friendly with everyone he spoke to. But Jonas couldn't picture a specific interaction between Kim and the rest of the crew beside his own. They had spent most of their free time in close quarters, working together and sharing their impressions on various topics.

"She was lonely, wasn't she." There was no question about that, Adams knew it too.

"Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"Sure, Corporal."

"It's fucking unfair is what it is." He waited a few seconds before elaborating. "I asked her on a date, merely hours before."

"And how did that go?" he said, not without a pinch to the heart.

"Ah, no joy. She's a professional... can't pull her away from her duty. I don't think she even acknowledged me. And I didn't see anyone else show interest in her. "

"Are you making a point, Adams?"

"Just saying... We're both here in her room while the rest of the crew is going on about their lives. Someone so dedicated deserves better than this. If that thing, that UFO took her, she could be anywhere. Probably off this planet by now."

"I hope you're wrong."

But he was probably right if an intelligent alien species did pay them a visit that night. Kim's body wasn't found, and if she was still alive she had very little chances of surviving an alien encounter. He imagined retrieving her cold body in a creek somewhere, or worse... lost in outer space and never to be found.

And they hadn't even kissed when they had the chance.

It would have changed everything.

He shut down the playback, extracted the data on his pad to transfer it to his own station. Something like this needed to be studied further, it was something Makarand would be very interested in, too.

"Tell me what you've found," said Adams as he turned to leave. "Let me know if there's anything I can do."

"There's a chain of command-"

"After what Makarand refused to tell us and the shit going on back home? Screw the chain of command."

Once alone again, he reviewed the recording from the afternoon of the day before, going from one surveillance cam to another until he found Kim. She was in the back of the interior yard in what looked like a picnic party, and people were all facing toward the marines with Adams playing music. Jonas was surprised, he'd never suspected anyone to be able to deliver a sound like that aboard the ship. Everyone seemed enthralled in the song, even Kim, as retreated as she was while the rest of the civilians were paired up and cuddling with their significant others. Where was he at that very moment?

He didn't know if it was the mellow tones or what he was seeing, but his breath locked and his vision went blurry. Jonas pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut until it cleared.

He started to understand why Adams had come to visit. He also admitted that he wasn't the only one to care for her when he saw the rest of the evening from the same camera. Adams approached Kim, as it had been accounted, and they began to talk. The exchange was so polite, so friendly and painfully respectful that Jonas almost wanted Kim to fall for Adams after he had sung for almost thirty minutes. She was roughly the same age as him, and he had a joyful attitude that could bring some light into her life. Even after sharing all they had, Jonas wanted her to be happy without him.

Despite himself he continued watching her every movement, to the limit of spying as she returned to her quarters to take a shower, change and get back to her work. She had spent several minutes studying the storm and the dig site until she sent out her first call to the ship. Nobody could answer her because of the electromagnetic black-out. Then she got him on the ECA line while she put her environmental suit on.

It had been her call and she had assumed all responsibility, she knew the risks and went anyway. Jonas had to stop blaming himself and start looking for solutions. If she wasn't coming back any time soon he had to find a replacement for the supervisor tasks while he took care of his latest discovery.

If she was taken by that dark UFO then he would need all of his resources at hand to figure out where it went, how to find it and, if it was flown by aliens, he hoped they weren't belligerent. The stories of people saying they had been abducted by aliens made him uneasy. Was Kim going through something like that, was she being hurt? Were they ever going to let her go alive?

Heading out, he turned towards the door to his quarters and saw Andrea O'Reilly. She was a student, why knock at his door for anything? He suddenly remembered Charles Grevin still unconscious in the medbay.

"Good morning Andrea," he called her.

"Commissioner... Ah, I didn't expect to find you here."

"What is it?"

"Every morning I visit the medical bay, but I couldn't find Doctor Oshima. So... I came looking for you since you let me in the first time."

She bit her lower lip, hands nervously clasped in front of her. She had no idea. Jonas nodded and walked with her back to the ship.

"What's going on?" she asked shyly as they proceeded out of the compound.

"We have a missing supervisor."

"I've heard about that... I want to help, but how..?"

Jonas slowed to a stop, realizing that she was an astronomy major.

"What do you know about planetary magnetic fields?"