Part 17: A Mission of Desperation
Alex stood atop that small hill just outside the village that she'd worked so hard to help build over the last few weeks. The single moon was high in the sky, casting a strangely silver light across the collection of huts before her. The village was surrounded by thick forest on all sides, with the small stream flowing serenely across one side. It looked like an ideal, peaceful place for them to live... and indeed it was. But she couldn't afford to stay.
With a wistful sigh she turned toward the north, where she remembered the Argathin city being located, and set off through the trees. She clutched a makeshift staff/spear in one hand, using it to help her walk. By now her leg had healed enough to let her move freely, but it still wasn't quite as strong as it should have been. She also had a backpack made of Swanky skin, in which she carried some food for her journey.
The grass on the ground felt pretty good between her bare toes. She wore a loose-fitting top that spread out across her shoulders and down across her chest, but stopped above her stomach. On the bottom she wore a simple skirt that wrapped around her thighs tightly at the top, but more loosely as it went down to her knees, to afford her plenty of mobility.
She moved silently through the forest for several hours, stepping carefully through bushes and needles that swayed in the wind all around her. The wind felt unusually chilly against her bare skin.
"Ugh... I guess Winter's coming on this planet or something..." Alex mused to herself as she continued to move through the darkness. She stopped suddenly when she heard a tree branch snap above her. "Who's there!? What's there!?" Alex raised her staff above her head, trying to peer into the thick foliage. But nothing else moved in the darkness.
"Hmph... scaredy-cat..." Alex mocked the darkness to cover to own shivering knees. She turned to continue her trek toward the north, digging the staff into the soft Earth to help her shaking knees keep their balance.
She heard another soft rustle above her, unmistakable this time. She whirled again and raised the staff above her head, trying to peer into the foliage above her.
"I know you're up there! Either show yourself or get lost!" Alex demanded forcefully. She stopped when she heard a soft clicking sound from right behind her, so close she could feel the wind of something breathing on her neck. She looked over her shoulder slowly, and her heart stopped in shock. A snakelike creature with a frill around its throat and small claws was holding itself up behind her. Pitch-black pools existed where its eyes should have, and a pair of wings each as large as her spread from its scaled back.
A hideous screech erupted as it opened its disjointed jaws, revealing several rows of razor sharp teeth leading up to a pair of two inch long fangs at the front. Alex let out a piercing scream and charged away from it, with her senses blacking out from the sheer panic that overwhelmed her. The spear was still clutched in her hand as she weaved through the trees.
Suddenly she emerged from the forest and went face first into a stream. She pushed herself up and whirled again, scrambling away from the forest, but the creature that had been chasing her was gone. She slowly climbed to her feet on shivering limbs, clutching the spear tightly in both hands, but she still didn't see any sign of her pursuer.
"Y... yeah... that's right you snake!" Alex shouted. "You better run!" She gulped and looked around, watching for the beast and trying to find her way north again. Looking up, she saw the red sun beginning to rise over the western horizon. The yellow would follow soon in the east... which meant the river she was standing in was flowing south. She could just follow it upstream.
First though, she walked to the shore and saw down to have a quick breakfast. Thankfully the skin her food was wrapped in was waterproof, so she didn't have to worry about that. She did keep a sharp eye out for any other movement near the stream though. Her heart was still racing like a hummingbird's.
When she finished eating she packed up the rest of her food and set off upstream, walking in the middle of the calve-deep stream. The water was crystal clear, she could even see tiny fish scattering as she moved toward them. She knelt down occasionally to take a sip of the clean, pure water. It tasted wonderful, better than any that had remained back on Earth.
She jumped in surprise when she accidentally scooped up a small frog-like creature along with the water. Its four beady eyes stared up at her steadily. "Oops, sorry... here you go little guy." Alex set the creature on a small rock in the middle of the stream, watching it curiously. It just stared up at her, unblinking and unmoving.
Nervously Alex stood up straight and decided to move on, leaving the tiny creature alone on its rock. The suns had reached their zenith by now, with the yellow one hidden behind the red, giving the sky an almost frightening orange hue. Alex was used to that after living here for so long though, so she paid it no mind. Actually it looked rather beautiful glinting off the water.
She walked until the suns reached the horizons before she moved to one of the shores and laid down to rest. A massive yawn escaped her throat after remaining awake for two days straight. So she settled down on the grass to rest, eating a quick dinner, then using her food sack as a pillow for the night. She was afraid she would be attacked, but she had to sleep and there was no safer place around.
She made it to morning, had a quick breakfast, then set off up the stream again. She moved at a quicker pace, rejuvenated by the deep sleep she'd enjoyed and emboldened by the cool breeze that swept over her. Winter for this planet must have been approaching, it felt cooler than it had even at night back in the village.
She looked idly around at the peaceful forest, enjoying what felt like a leisurely stroll when she suddenly looked down. She stopped in mid stride with her foot just an inch above the water when she saw an ominous black shape just under the water, right beneath her foot. It looked fairly inconspicuous, rather like a ring of stones pointing upward like a strange bear trap, but it was given away by the dark pools of its eyes and the dark body that surrounded it. Now that she looked, she saw it moving, breathing and writhing as though itching to snap her foot right off.
Alex gulped and slowly raised her spear over her head. The creature's mouth twitched, waiting for her to bring her foot down. Alex raised her foot, prompting the thing to lunge itself out of the water with a warbling shriek. Alex brought her spear down straight inside its mouth, impaling it against the rock bed underneath.
"Whew... that was too close..." Alex panted, watching the creature scream and struggle until it finally went limp. "I've got to start watching where I'm going." She stood up straight and pushed the dead creature off her spear before resuming her trek, keeping a closer eye on her surroundings and especially where she was walking.
She made it to nightfall, when she ate some dinner and settled down on the grass beside the stream again to rest. The following morning she ate breakfast and continued on her way. Around midday she caught sight of a shining glint in the sky over the horizon... it looked like the light of the two suns mingling on a piece of glass... the Argathin city. It was finally coming into view. But it would still be at least a few days before she reached it.
More animals appeared before the night fell once again. A few beautiful birds flew overhead, with feathers that shined bright gold in the light of the two suns, almost bright enough to blind her. She caught sight of a small mammal as well, a tiny thing that looked suspiciously like a Duck-Billed Platypus from Earth. She always thought there was something strange about those things.
Her trek continued with few interruptions for the next few days. She encountered a countless number of wondrous new creatures, but she couldn't afford to stop and appreciate them for long. Especially since a few decided she looked pretty tasty and tried to eat her. The food she'd brought was running low. Hopefully she would be able to get some food from the Argathin city in addition to weapons, or she'd never live through the trip back to Earth.
At last, in the afternoon of the fifth day of her trek, she approached the outside of the massive Argathin city, covered completely in a mirrored glass that made it almost blinding in the bright light of the suns. Alex stopped in front of the wall and looked around for a way in, but she couldn't find anything that looked like a door.
"Hmmm... they've got to get in and out aside from those hangars up there don't they?" Alex looked up the side of the glass building at the massive hangar doors that were built into the side miles above the Earth. "I guess I could climb... but this IS glass, they could see me. I'd might as well just break through a window with a really big stick and say a beaver did it..."
Alex looked down at her spear, then at the piece of glass in front of her. "Well, here goes nothing." She lifted the spear above her head, clutching it in both hands tightly as she brought it forward, slamming the tip into the glass wall. The glass shattered with surprising ease for being made by a race that was once under siege by an alien menace. But Alex wasn't about to question her good luck.
She charged into the empty room and flattened herself against the wall by the door just before the door slid open, letting a small group of Argathins run into the room right past her, chattering to each other in their own language.
Alex slipped past them into the hallway, leaving her spear sitting in the floor. She looked furiously for a hiding place, and spotted a vent in the roof. "Even aliens need air..." She ran at the wall and used it to leap up to the vent, knocking it aside so she could crawl up into the small shaft and put the grate back in place.
She hunkered down and remained silent, watching from the shadows as the aliens ran back into the hall and looked around for the source of the noise. They chattered to each other in rushed tones, then split up in different directions. "Now, to find a map or something to get around this place. It's too big to just wander around."
Alex crawled through the vent, looking through each grate she came to. It was mostly blank hallways, but finally she came to what looked like a rec room where aliens were sitting around talking with each other in companionable tones. She could see a map of the city plastered against the wall... in fact, it took up the entire wall. It would help, but how to clear the area...
She backed up further down the vent and slammed her feet into one of the grates in the hall. It fell to the floor with a loud clatter, and the aliens from the rec room ran out to investigate. Quickly Alex crawled back toward the map and opened a grate, hanging upside down in front of the map by her knees to get a good look at it.
"Kitchen... kitchen... what the Hell does it look like!?" Alex whispered furiously to herself. The map was written in a language she couldn't understand, but the symbols were fairly self-explanatory. She found a symbol of what looked like a fork over one of the larger rooms. There was a box around it and other rooms, with a strange symbol displayed above the box. "Must be a sector or something... and it looks like it's on the four-hundred fifty-second floor."
Suddenly the sound of the rec room door sliding open sounded behind her. She quickly pulled herself back up into the vent and slid the grate back into place as the Argathins walked into the room, looking at each other instead of at her. She crept away from the room, examining the hallways through the grates for anything that looked like the turbolift things they'd been using on the space ship.
She finally found one, and waited for a pair of Argathins to exit before hopping down from the vent and darting inside just before it automatically closed. She pressed the symbol on the control panel that matched the one she'd seen near the kitchen on the map, and inserted the number '452' into the number pad next to it.
The lift moved with surprising speed, jerking Alex around inside as it flew across the massive building toward the desired coordinates. Alex finally got her footing steady as the lift finally began to slow after a pretty long ride. The doors opened and she moved to exit, but she lunged back in when she saw two Argathins walking toward the lift.
She flattened herself against the wall beside the door as the two aliens walked in, making googly eyes at each other and holding hands. She slipped through the door just before it closed, leaving the two kissing aliens inside without her. "That's sweet..." Alex allowed herself a moment to appreciate the sight of love before running up the wall again to the vent above her and sliding inside of it.
She crept the direction she remembered the kitchen being, and sure enough she soon looked through a grate to see a big empty room with burners and pans of all kind scattered around with shelves lining the walls. It looked like the room was empty, so Alex slid down with a soft plop as her bare feet hit the floor. She ran to the shelves and flung them open.
"Yuck... it looks like dog food." She stuck her tongue out as she saw a row of cans with different pictures on them. "Aw well... guess I can't be picky." She took off her animal-skin backpack and started throwing random cans into it alongside the fruit she had left from the village. When she had enough she closed it again and flipped it back across her shoulders.
Suddenly the doors that led into the kitchen slid open. "Damnit!" Alex hissed as she dove behind one of the sinks. She heard two sets of footsteps moving through the kitchen, as two aliens talked in their native language with companionable tones. They stopped when the legs reached the edge of the sink and caught sight of the open cabinet.
Alex turned to slide across the floor toward the open door while the voices picked up behind her. She slid out into the hall on all fours, looking around to make sure nobody was approaching before racing down the hall to the right. She slipped into the doorframe of another door, leaning against the wall. "I need to find another map..." She muttered. She could've just checked the first map for everything she needed if she'd been thinking at the time. Aw well.
Her heart nearly leapt out of her chest when the door right beside her opened and a small looking Argathin bumped into her side. She was half the size of the rest, and had on a small blue uniform similar to the ones the rest wore. It looked up at Alex in surprise, its eyes going wide. It looked like it was going to scream, so Alex grabbed it and darted into the room, pressing the panel to close the door behind them.
"Ssssshhhhhh!" Alex hissed, holding the little alien's mouth shut with one hand while holding her arms with the other. The little one was squirming in panic. "I'm not going to hurt you, I promise!" Alex hissed. "Just calm down and be quiet... please!" The little one nodded fearfully, the muffled cries quieting down. At least it spoke English like the adults.
Alex waited until the footsteps from the adults outside the door left before whispering to the child again. "I'm going to let go of your mouth... I just want to talk, I promise. I need you to not scream though... can you promise me you won't scream?" She asked. The little alien nodded again, though its eyes were pretty wide. Alex moved her hand slowly, and as promised the child didn't scream.
"Good... uh... kid." Alex said, not knowing the child's gender. "I need you to tell me where the weapons storage room in this city is."
"I don't know..." The child replied. Alex cursed at herself. Of course a child wouldn't know off-hand.
"Do you know where the nearest map is, so I can check?" Alex asked.
"Th... that way." The kid pointed toward the right. "Four rooms down on the right..." Its voice was shaking, but it wasn't making any move to resist her.
"Thanks a bunch kid..." Alex paused. She knew where to find a map... but what about the child? It would probably call for help the second she left, and if it told the adults that it was a human sneaking through their city, they might retaliate against the village even if they didn't manage to catch Alex. She couldn't just let the kid go...
But what else was she going to do? Was she seriously considering hurting a young child just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time? What kind of monster did she think she was?
... One without a choice.
Alex gulped as she reached toward the bed and grabbed a pillow, clutching it tightly in one hand with her other arm still wrapped around the child's small body. The child gulped. "C... can I go now?" It asked with a fear-tinged voice. Alex breathed deeply, trying to ready herself for what she had to do... everyone in the village depended on her. It was too great a risk not to.
The kid was growing more panicked by the moment. "P... please... don't hurt me..." It begged. Alex could feel the kid's tears falling onto her arm. Alex began to cry softly herself, trying to will her arm around. One swift motion... hold it for just a few minutes, and it would be done. That was all it would take to make sure her village stayed safe...
Her arm shook violently... and her cheeks were wet with already shed tears. She could hear the child sobbing in fear, its little body shaking from the force of its crying. Alex closed her eyes and remembered everything she'd gone through and seen in the last ten years... the torture, the hatred... the killing... the nuclear warhead flying right over her head on its way to annihilate an entire city. She remembered Mandy sounding so broken... her spirit crushed. The Argathins had the power to do all this too... if they had reason to... they would do it to Kira...
Alex opened her eyes again to find that it was already done. Her arms held tightly to the small, limp form with the pillow pressed against its face. She felt completely numb as she lowered the child to the floor gently, laying it face down so she wouldn't have to see its face. "I'm... I'm sorry..." She told it gently, though she knew it didn't help.
She knelt down by the little body for a few moments, taking in the gravity of what she'd done before she made herself climb to her feet. She had a promise to keep... Sam needed her now. She found a grate in the ceiling and jumped up to it, crawling through the vent in the direction the kid had indicated before. She didn't feel anything... she didn't even seem to feel the cold steel around her. She was just acting on what she knew had to be done.
She found the promised map, with no Argathins anywhere in sight. She dropped down, got the coordinates of both the weapons storage room and the hangar, and slipped back into the vent to head back to the turbolift that had brought her there. She waited until the coast was clear before slipping down and darting into the lift to insert the coordinates of the weapons facility.
She waited for the lift to reach its destination before slipping out into the hall and climbing back into the vents again. She slipped through the building, and soon found a room with two armed guards standing in front of it. That would be the weapons facility... so she carefully crawled over their heads into the room beyond them.
It looked like it was empty, so she opened the grate and slipped into the room, landing lightly on the metal floor. All around her she could see shelves stacked with various kinds of weapons. It looked they all ran off of similar energy that the Zardexians weapons used... which meant they were useless. Energy weapons hadn't worked against the Rev after he was revealed any more than the bullets had since. She needed something bigger.
So she walked around the room, surveying the different types of weapons that were sitting on the shelves. Some were bigger than others, and finally she found a collection of cannons the size of her arm that looked like they would create a decent sized hole in anything they hit. She could just take one back to Earth, and let the scientists there figure out how to duplicate it.
She grabbed it off the wall and slung it over her shoulder by the strap that made it easier to carry. She turned to leave, but she stopped when she saw a row of vials on the wall alongside some of the smaller weapons. She couldn't read their labels, but they had pictures of the Zardexians on them... and they were filled with disgusting brown liquid.
"The anti-toxin..." Alex approached the vials and picked up a handful. Sam had told her to find some of this too. So she stuffed a dozen or so vials into her sack and stood up straight, hefting both her bag and the cannon over her shoulders with some difficulty.
She jumped up to the vent and climbed back in, but the added bulk of the cannon and her full bag made maneuvering even more difficult than it was when she first got here. She pulled herself carefully through the vents, thankful that there was a hangar near the weapons facility.
Indeed there was... but it was swarming with Argathins tuning and repairing the large golden ships for space travel. She crept through the vents above the hangar, but there was nowhere to drop down without being seen by someone, and that was something she wanted to avoid at all costs...
She listened to the aliens chattering in their own language as they worked on the ships. There had to be some way to get them out of there long enough for her to snag a ship... and she didn't think dropping a vent outside of the room would do it this time. If only she knew how to trigger an alarm... maybe she could lure them out...
"Hmmm..." Alex crawled through the vent toward the outside hallway, making it a ways out before she pried the vent up. She pulled the pulse cannon off of her shoulder and aimed it down at the hall, looking through the sight and turning a few dials to make sure she knew how it worked. It would definitely get some attention, and let her make sure she got the right weapon too.
She fiddled with the dials until she found a setting that looked promising and fired at the floor of the hallway. A pulse of blue energy exploded from the barrel of the cannon and slammed into the floor with a thunderous explosion. The floor cracked under the force of the blast and fell into the floor below with a thunderous crash. It seemed like the sound of metal slamming into metal would never stop.
Alex whistled. "Right weapon..." She fell silent when she heard the Argathins approaching. She slung the cannon back over her shoulder and crawled back toward the hangar, which was now completely empty. She opened a vent and dropped down, using the side of one ship to slide down safely, then took off toward one of the other glowing golden vessels that were parked along the wall.
She ran inside and found one of the lifts to take her up to the bridge, quickly running to the control panel in front of the main window. She could see that the hangar was still empty for the moment. So she set about searching for the ignition system... which was a bit harder to find than the steering wheel that served as the control system.
"On button, on button..." Alex muttered frantically, searching for any sign of an ignition. Outside the window she could see the Argathins beginning to pile back into the hangar bay. She bit her lip and started pushing buttons at random, watching the Argathins as they found the open vent in the middle of the hangar. "Turn on already..."
"Agh!" Alex lurched over the control panel as the ship suddenly lurched into the air. "Got it!" She turned the ship toward the hangar doors and moved toward them. The doors were still shut however, and she had no idea how to use the ship's weapons. "Buttons worked before..." Alex slammed her palm down on the control panel quickly.
No weapons fired... but the ship did charge forward and break straight through the wall, streaking out into the sky like a golden bullet, Alex slammed into the control panel on impact, groaning in pain as she flew out over the forest outside of the city. "Ugh... it worked..." She grunted painfully. She gripped the wheel and pulled it back to send the ship up into the atmosphere, away from the planet that had become her home.
Alex sighed and rubbed her stomach tenderly as she sky outside the front window gave way to stars. Nobody had seen who she was, so the village should stay safe... well... nobody alive had seen her anyway. She tried to push the memory of the child's frightened cries out of her mind. She did what she had to... she wasn't proud of it, but these days survival wasn't a friendly game.
"Huh...?" Alex looked aside in surprise when she heard a strange sound tickle the back of her mind. She saw the purple essence that had paced them during their trip to the Argathin home world, flying through the stars beside her like a graceful whale. Alex stared at it as she slowly dropped the cannon and her food sack to the floor. She quickly searched for the autopilot on the ship and set it to head toward Earth.
She walked over to the window and stared out at the flowing violet essence, pacing the ship with an unnaturally serene grace. "Mandy... I know that's you..." Alex said softly, placing her hand on the window. She smiled as the essence moved toward the window, a sliver of the shining energy moving to touch her palm through the window, tracing it perfectly.
"We'll get to spend a some time together for a while..." Alex said softly. "I'm not sure what you are now... but I'm glad I'm not alone out here." Alex smiled and pressed her cheek against the glass. The violet essence formed around her cheek. It felt surprisingly warm against her skin, sending a warm, tender feeling rushing through her body.
Alex smiled and closed her eyes, enjoying the warmth enveloping every fiber in her body. It'd be a long trip back to Earth... but she didn't care one bit.
TO BE CONTINUED
Alex stood atop that small hill just outside the village that she'd worked so hard to help build over the last few weeks. The single moon was high in the sky, casting a strangely silver light across the collection of huts before her. The village was surrounded by thick forest on all sides, with the small stream flowing serenely across one side. It looked like an ideal, peaceful place for them to live... and indeed it was. But she couldn't afford to stay.
With a wistful sigh she turned toward the north, where she remembered the Argathin city being located, and set off through the trees. She clutched a makeshift staff/spear in one hand, using it to help her walk. By now her leg had healed enough to let her move freely, but it still wasn't quite as strong as it should have been. She also had a backpack made of Swanky skin, in which she carried some food for her journey.
The grass on the ground felt pretty good between her bare toes. She wore a loose-fitting top that spread out across her shoulders and down across her chest, but stopped above her stomach. On the bottom she wore a simple skirt that wrapped around her thighs tightly at the top, but more loosely as it went down to her knees, to afford her plenty of mobility.
She moved silently through the forest for several hours, stepping carefully through bushes and needles that swayed in the wind all around her. The wind felt unusually chilly against her bare skin.
"Ugh... I guess Winter's coming on this planet or something..." Alex mused to herself as she continued to move through the darkness. She stopped suddenly when she heard a tree branch snap above her. "Who's there!? What's there!?" Alex raised her staff above her head, trying to peer into the thick foliage. But nothing else moved in the darkness.
"Hmph... scaredy-cat..." Alex mocked the darkness to cover to own shivering knees. She turned to continue her trek toward the north, digging the staff into the soft Earth to help her shaking knees keep their balance.
She heard another soft rustle above her, unmistakable this time. She whirled again and raised the staff above her head, trying to peer into the foliage above her.
"I know you're up there! Either show yourself or get lost!" Alex demanded forcefully. She stopped when she heard a soft clicking sound from right behind her, so close she could feel the wind of something breathing on her neck. She looked over her shoulder slowly, and her heart stopped in shock. A snakelike creature with a frill around its throat and small claws was holding itself up behind her. Pitch-black pools existed where its eyes should have, and a pair of wings each as large as her spread from its scaled back.
A hideous screech erupted as it opened its disjointed jaws, revealing several rows of razor sharp teeth leading up to a pair of two inch long fangs at the front. Alex let out a piercing scream and charged away from it, with her senses blacking out from the sheer panic that overwhelmed her. The spear was still clutched in her hand as she weaved through the trees.
Suddenly she emerged from the forest and went face first into a stream. She pushed herself up and whirled again, scrambling away from the forest, but the creature that had been chasing her was gone. She slowly climbed to her feet on shivering limbs, clutching the spear tightly in both hands, but she still didn't see any sign of her pursuer.
"Y... yeah... that's right you snake!" Alex shouted. "You better run!" She gulped and looked around, watching for the beast and trying to find her way north again. Looking up, she saw the red sun beginning to rise over the western horizon. The yellow would follow soon in the east... which meant the river she was standing in was flowing south. She could just follow it upstream.
First though, she walked to the shore and saw down to have a quick breakfast. Thankfully the skin her food was wrapped in was waterproof, so she didn't have to worry about that. She did keep a sharp eye out for any other movement near the stream though. Her heart was still racing like a hummingbird's.
When she finished eating she packed up the rest of her food and set off upstream, walking in the middle of the calve-deep stream. The water was crystal clear, she could even see tiny fish scattering as she moved toward them. She knelt down occasionally to take a sip of the clean, pure water. It tasted wonderful, better than any that had remained back on Earth.
She jumped in surprise when she accidentally scooped up a small frog-like creature along with the water. Its four beady eyes stared up at her steadily. "Oops, sorry... here you go little guy." Alex set the creature on a small rock in the middle of the stream, watching it curiously. It just stared up at her, unblinking and unmoving.
Nervously Alex stood up straight and decided to move on, leaving the tiny creature alone on its rock. The suns had reached their zenith by now, with the yellow one hidden behind the red, giving the sky an almost frightening orange hue. Alex was used to that after living here for so long though, so she paid it no mind. Actually it looked rather beautiful glinting off the water.
She walked until the suns reached the horizons before she moved to one of the shores and laid down to rest. A massive yawn escaped her throat after remaining awake for two days straight. So she settled down on the grass to rest, eating a quick dinner, then using her food sack as a pillow for the night. She was afraid she would be attacked, but she had to sleep and there was no safer place around.
She made it to morning, had a quick breakfast, then set off up the stream again. She moved at a quicker pace, rejuvenated by the deep sleep she'd enjoyed and emboldened by the cool breeze that swept over her. Winter for this planet must have been approaching, it felt cooler than it had even at night back in the village.
She looked idly around at the peaceful forest, enjoying what felt like a leisurely stroll when she suddenly looked down. She stopped in mid stride with her foot just an inch above the water when she saw an ominous black shape just under the water, right beneath her foot. It looked fairly inconspicuous, rather like a ring of stones pointing upward like a strange bear trap, but it was given away by the dark pools of its eyes and the dark body that surrounded it. Now that she looked, she saw it moving, breathing and writhing as though itching to snap her foot right off.
Alex gulped and slowly raised her spear over her head. The creature's mouth twitched, waiting for her to bring her foot down. Alex raised her foot, prompting the thing to lunge itself out of the water with a warbling shriek. Alex brought her spear down straight inside its mouth, impaling it against the rock bed underneath.
"Whew... that was too close..." Alex panted, watching the creature scream and struggle until it finally went limp. "I've got to start watching where I'm going." She stood up straight and pushed the dead creature off her spear before resuming her trek, keeping a closer eye on her surroundings and especially where she was walking.
She made it to nightfall, when she ate some dinner and settled down on the grass beside the stream again to rest. The following morning she ate breakfast and continued on her way. Around midday she caught sight of a shining glint in the sky over the horizon... it looked like the light of the two suns mingling on a piece of glass... the Argathin city. It was finally coming into view. But it would still be at least a few days before she reached it.
More animals appeared before the night fell once again. A few beautiful birds flew overhead, with feathers that shined bright gold in the light of the two suns, almost bright enough to blind her. She caught sight of a small mammal as well, a tiny thing that looked suspiciously like a Duck-Billed Platypus from Earth. She always thought there was something strange about those things.
Her trek continued with few interruptions for the next few days. She encountered a countless number of wondrous new creatures, but she couldn't afford to stop and appreciate them for long. Especially since a few decided she looked pretty tasty and tried to eat her. The food she'd brought was running low. Hopefully she would be able to get some food from the Argathin city in addition to weapons, or she'd never live through the trip back to Earth.
At last, in the afternoon of the fifth day of her trek, she approached the outside of the massive Argathin city, covered completely in a mirrored glass that made it almost blinding in the bright light of the suns. Alex stopped in front of the wall and looked around for a way in, but she couldn't find anything that looked like a door.
"Hmmm... they've got to get in and out aside from those hangars up there don't they?" Alex looked up the side of the glass building at the massive hangar doors that were built into the side miles above the Earth. "I guess I could climb... but this IS glass, they could see me. I'd might as well just break through a window with a really big stick and say a beaver did it..."
Alex looked down at her spear, then at the piece of glass in front of her. "Well, here goes nothing." She lifted the spear above her head, clutching it in both hands tightly as she brought it forward, slamming the tip into the glass wall. The glass shattered with surprising ease for being made by a race that was once under siege by an alien menace. But Alex wasn't about to question her good luck.
She charged into the empty room and flattened herself against the wall by the door just before the door slid open, letting a small group of Argathins run into the room right past her, chattering to each other in their own language.
Alex slipped past them into the hallway, leaving her spear sitting in the floor. She looked furiously for a hiding place, and spotted a vent in the roof. "Even aliens need air..." She ran at the wall and used it to leap up to the vent, knocking it aside so she could crawl up into the small shaft and put the grate back in place.
She hunkered down and remained silent, watching from the shadows as the aliens ran back into the hall and looked around for the source of the noise. They chattered to each other in rushed tones, then split up in different directions. "Now, to find a map or something to get around this place. It's too big to just wander around."
Alex crawled through the vent, looking through each grate she came to. It was mostly blank hallways, but finally she came to what looked like a rec room where aliens were sitting around talking with each other in companionable tones. She could see a map of the city plastered against the wall... in fact, it took up the entire wall. It would help, but how to clear the area...
She backed up further down the vent and slammed her feet into one of the grates in the hall. It fell to the floor with a loud clatter, and the aliens from the rec room ran out to investigate. Quickly Alex crawled back toward the map and opened a grate, hanging upside down in front of the map by her knees to get a good look at it.
"Kitchen... kitchen... what the Hell does it look like!?" Alex whispered furiously to herself. The map was written in a language she couldn't understand, but the symbols were fairly self-explanatory. She found a symbol of what looked like a fork over one of the larger rooms. There was a box around it and other rooms, with a strange symbol displayed above the box. "Must be a sector or something... and it looks like it's on the four-hundred fifty-second floor."
Suddenly the sound of the rec room door sliding open sounded behind her. She quickly pulled herself back up into the vent and slid the grate back into place as the Argathins walked into the room, looking at each other instead of at her. She crept away from the room, examining the hallways through the grates for anything that looked like the turbolift things they'd been using on the space ship.
She finally found one, and waited for a pair of Argathins to exit before hopping down from the vent and darting inside just before it automatically closed. She pressed the symbol on the control panel that matched the one she'd seen near the kitchen on the map, and inserted the number '452' into the number pad next to it.
The lift moved with surprising speed, jerking Alex around inside as it flew across the massive building toward the desired coordinates. Alex finally got her footing steady as the lift finally began to slow after a pretty long ride. The doors opened and she moved to exit, but she lunged back in when she saw two Argathins walking toward the lift.
She flattened herself against the wall beside the door as the two aliens walked in, making googly eyes at each other and holding hands. She slipped through the door just before it closed, leaving the two kissing aliens inside without her. "That's sweet..." Alex allowed herself a moment to appreciate the sight of love before running up the wall again to the vent above her and sliding inside of it.
She crept the direction she remembered the kitchen being, and sure enough she soon looked through a grate to see a big empty room with burners and pans of all kind scattered around with shelves lining the walls. It looked like the room was empty, so Alex slid down with a soft plop as her bare feet hit the floor. She ran to the shelves and flung them open.
"Yuck... it looks like dog food." She stuck her tongue out as she saw a row of cans with different pictures on them. "Aw well... guess I can't be picky." She took off her animal-skin backpack and started throwing random cans into it alongside the fruit she had left from the village. When she had enough she closed it again and flipped it back across her shoulders.
Suddenly the doors that led into the kitchen slid open. "Damnit!" Alex hissed as she dove behind one of the sinks. She heard two sets of footsteps moving through the kitchen, as two aliens talked in their native language with companionable tones. They stopped when the legs reached the edge of the sink and caught sight of the open cabinet.
Alex turned to slide across the floor toward the open door while the voices picked up behind her. She slid out into the hall on all fours, looking around to make sure nobody was approaching before racing down the hall to the right. She slipped into the doorframe of another door, leaning against the wall. "I need to find another map..." She muttered. She could've just checked the first map for everything she needed if she'd been thinking at the time. Aw well.
Her heart nearly leapt out of her chest when the door right beside her opened and a small looking Argathin bumped into her side. She was half the size of the rest, and had on a small blue uniform similar to the ones the rest wore. It looked up at Alex in surprise, its eyes going wide. It looked like it was going to scream, so Alex grabbed it and darted into the room, pressing the panel to close the door behind them.
"Ssssshhhhhh!" Alex hissed, holding the little alien's mouth shut with one hand while holding her arms with the other. The little one was squirming in panic. "I'm not going to hurt you, I promise!" Alex hissed. "Just calm down and be quiet... please!" The little one nodded fearfully, the muffled cries quieting down. At least it spoke English like the adults.
Alex waited until the footsteps from the adults outside the door left before whispering to the child again. "I'm going to let go of your mouth... I just want to talk, I promise. I need you to not scream though... can you promise me you won't scream?" She asked. The little alien nodded again, though its eyes were pretty wide. Alex moved her hand slowly, and as promised the child didn't scream.
"Good... uh... kid." Alex said, not knowing the child's gender. "I need you to tell me where the weapons storage room in this city is."
"I don't know..." The child replied. Alex cursed at herself. Of course a child wouldn't know off-hand.
"Do you know where the nearest map is, so I can check?" Alex asked.
"Th... that way." The kid pointed toward the right. "Four rooms down on the right..." Its voice was shaking, but it wasn't making any move to resist her.
"Thanks a bunch kid..." Alex paused. She knew where to find a map... but what about the child? It would probably call for help the second she left, and if it told the adults that it was a human sneaking through their city, they might retaliate against the village even if they didn't manage to catch Alex. She couldn't just let the kid go...
But what else was she going to do? Was she seriously considering hurting a young child just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time? What kind of monster did she think she was?
... One without a choice.
Alex gulped as she reached toward the bed and grabbed a pillow, clutching it tightly in one hand with her other arm still wrapped around the child's small body. The child gulped. "C... can I go now?" It asked with a fear-tinged voice. Alex breathed deeply, trying to ready herself for what she had to do... everyone in the village depended on her. It was too great a risk not to.
The kid was growing more panicked by the moment. "P... please... don't hurt me..." It begged. Alex could feel the kid's tears falling onto her arm. Alex began to cry softly herself, trying to will her arm around. One swift motion... hold it for just a few minutes, and it would be done. That was all it would take to make sure her village stayed safe...
Her arm shook violently... and her cheeks were wet with already shed tears. She could hear the child sobbing in fear, its little body shaking from the force of its crying. Alex closed her eyes and remembered everything she'd gone through and seen in the last ten years... the torture, the hatred... the killing... the nuclear warhead flying right over her head on its way to annihilate an entire city. She remembered Mandy sounding so broken... her spirit crushed. The Argathins had the power to do all this too... if they had reason to... they would do it to Kira...
Alex opened her eyes again to find that it was already done. Her arms held tightly to the small, limp form with the pillow pressed against its face. She felt completely numb as she lowered the child to the floor gently, laying it face down so she wouldn't have to see its face. "I'm... I'm sorry..." She told it gently, though she knew it didn't help.
She knelt down by the little body for a few moments, taking in the gravity of what she'd done before she made herself climb to her feet. She had a promise to keep... Sam needed her now. She found a grate in the ceiling and jumped up to it, crawling through the vent in the direction the kid had indicated before. She didn't feel anything... she didn't even seem to feel the cold steel around her. She was just acting on what she knew had to be done.
She found the promised map, with no Argathins anywhere in sight. She dropped down, got the coordinates of both the weapons storage room and the hangar, and slipped back into the vent to head back to the turbolift that had brought her there. She waited until the coast was clear before slipping down and darting into the lift to insert the coordinates of the weapons facility.
She waited for the lift to reach its destination before slipping out into the hall and climbing back into the vents again. She slipped through the building, and soon found a room with two armed guards standing in front of it. That would be the weapons facility... so she carefully crawled over their heads into the room beyond them.
It looked like it was empty, so she opened the grate and slipped into the room, landing lightly on the metal floor. All around her she could see shelves stacked with various kinds of weapons. It looked they all ran off of similar energy that the Zardexians weapons used... which meant they were useless. Energy weapons hadn't worked against the Rev after he was revealed any more than the bullets had since. She needed something bigger.
So she walked around the room, surveying the different types of weapons that were sitting on the shelves. Some were bigger than others, and finally she found a collection of cannons the size of her arm that looked like they would create a decent sized hole in anything they hit. She could just take one back to Earth, and let the scientists there figure out how to duplicate it.
She grabbed it off the wall and slung it over her shoulder by the strap that made it easier to carry. She turned to leave, but she stopped when she saw a row of vials on the wall alongside some of the smaller weapons. She couldn't read their labels, but they had pictures of the Zardexians on them... and they were filled with disgusting brown liquid.
"The anti-toxin..." Alex approached the vials and picked up a handful. Sam had told her to find some of this too. So she stuffed a dozen or so vials into her sack and stood up straight, hefting both her bag and the cannon over her shoulders with some difficulty.
She jumped up to the vent and climbed back in, but the added bulk of the cannon and her full bag made maneuvering even more difficult than it was when she first got here. She pulled herself carefully through the vents, thankful that there was a hangar near the weapons facility.
Indeed there was... but it was swarming with Argathins tuning and repairing the large golden ships for space travel. She crept through the vents above the hangar, but there was nowhere to drop down without being seen by someone, and that was something she wanted to avoid at all costs...
She listened to the aliens chattering in their own language as they worked on the ships. There had to be some way to get them out of there long enough for her to snag a ship... and she didn't think dropping a vent outside of the room would do it this time. If only she knew how to trigger an alarm... maybe she could lure them out...
"Hmmm..." Alex crawled through the vent toward the outside hallway, making it a ways out before she pried the vent up. She pulled the pulse cannon off of her shoulder and aimed it down at the hall, looking through the sight and turning a few dials to make sure she knew how it worked. It would definitely get some attention, and let her make sure she got the right weapon too.
She fiddled with the dials until she found a setting that looked promising and fired at the floor of the hallway. A pulse of blue energy exploded from the barrel of the cannon and slammed into the floor with a thunderous explosion. The floor cracked under the force of the blast and fell into the floor below with a thunderous crash. It seemed like the sound of metal slamming into metal would never stop.
Alex whistled. "Right weapon..." She fell silent when she heard the Argathins approaching. She slung the cannon back over her shoulder and crawled back toward the hangar, which was now completely empty. She opened a vent and dropped down, using the side of one ship to slide down safely, then took off toward one of the other glowing golden vessels that were parked along the wall.
She ran inside and found one of the lifts to take her up to the bridge, quickly running to the control panel in front of the main window. She could see that the hangar was still empty for the moment. So she set about searching for the ignition system... which was a bit harder to find than the steering wheel that served as the control system.
"On button, on button..." Alex muttered frantically, searching for any sign of an ignition. Outside the window she could see the Argathins beginning to pile back into the hangar bay. She bit her lip and started pushing buttons at random, watching the Argathins as they found the open vent in the middle of the hangar. "Turn on already..."
"Agh!" Alex lurched over the control panel as the ship suddenly lurched into the air. "Got it!" She turned the ship toward the hangar doors and moved toward them. The doors were still shut however, and she had no idea how to use the ship's weapons. "Buttons worked before..." Alex slammed her palm down on the control panel quickly.
No weapons fired... but the ship did charge forward and break straight through the wall, streaking out into the sky like a golden bullet, Alex slammed into the control panel on impact, groaning in pain as she flew out over the forest outside of the city. "Ugh... it worked..." She grunted painfully. She gripped the wheel and pulled it back to send the ship up into the atmosphere, away from the planet that had become her home.
Alex sighed and rubbed her stomach tenderly as she sky outside the front window gave way to stars. Nobody had seen who she was, so the village should stay safe... well... nobody alive had seen her anyway. She tried to push the memory of the child's frightened cries out of her mind. She did what she had to... she wasn't proud of it, but these days survival wasn't a friendly game.
"Huh...?" Alex looked aside in surprise when she heard a strange sound tickle the back of her mind. She saw the purple essence that had paced them during their trip to the Argathin home world, flying through the stars beside her like a graceful whale. Alex stared at it as she slowly dropped the cannon and her food sack to the floor. She quickly searched for the autopilot on the ship and set it to head toward Earth.
She walked over to the window and stared out at the flowing violet essence, pacing the ship with an unnaturally serene grace. "Mandy... I know that's you..." Alex said softly, placing her hand on the window. She smiled as the essence moved toward the window, a sliver of the shining energy moving to touch her palm through the window, tracing it perfectly.
"We'll get to spend a some time together for a while..." Alex said softly. "I'm not sure what you are now... but I'm glad I'm not alone out here." Alex smiled and pressed her cheek against the glass. The violet essence formed around her cheek. It felt surprisingly warm against her skin, sending a warm, tender feeling rushing through her body.
Alex smiled and closed her eyes, enjoying the warmth enveloping every fiber in her body. It'd be a long trip back to Earth... but she didn't care one bit.
TO BE CONTINUED