CHAPTER 1: A Dream of Broken Skies
It watched. It always watched. From its place in the outermost void, its gaze fell over her again. Always while she dreamed.
"Who are you?"
No answer came. Eve was here again. In the un-light beneath a broken sky.
The stars. There were no stars. Only a warped firmament stretching away into an abyssal void, given shape only by the strange dead worlds that hung in the sky, each one's shadow casting across the others. Some were intact, others were shattered.
Their abnormal, perfectly spaced silhouettes caught in the eerie glow that permeated everything.
The strange un-light washed over the land revealing its truly unnatural aspect. The ground beneath her was hard, scaled and chitinous. This place was alive.
Spaced evenly every few miles, as if to watch over every part of this strange realm were twisting, triple helix constructs with the semblance of charred bone, each one over a kilometer tall and stretching away beyond the horizon.
The constructs seemed to breathe, the entire world seemed to breathe.
"What do you want?"...
"WHAT DO YOU WANT!"...
She screamed but her voice went nowhere, as if it refused to carry beyond her lips. There were no echos here.
She felt its gaze intensify, almost like a physical weight, threatening to force her to her knees. Regarding her with a cold curiosity.
Eve forced herself to turn, each movement felt glacial under the severity of the presence.
She saw, as she'd seen before. In the far distance, the largest of the strange towering constructs, wider at it's base, and hundreds of miles high, twisting with uncountable extremities. Radiating with an unknowable power.
A breathing palace. A living fortress.
All other constructs seemed at once to twist and bow to the strange dominant tower.
The strange un-light coalesced in the sky beyond the tower, to form the aspect of an eclipse, but there was no moon, and no sun, only a howling void ringed with light that even the dead worlds above appeared to avoid.
A living world. A garden of consciousness under a broken sky, basking in the un-light of a dead star.
The presence intensified still, it felt like her knees were about to buckle under its intensity. Finally, she was able to muster one last utterance…
"Who am I?"
There had never been an answer before, never any form of response. This was where she usually awoke.
This was not one of those times.
She felt it, perceived it as much as heard it, not as if spoken aloud, but as if spoken within her own mind.
"Regent"
With that, the breathing stopped and the strange world around her fell into a dead silence.
The oppressive gaze lifted and Eve raised her head, however she was given no time to process the response.
As if prompted by the utterance. Beyond the tower, the dark singularity in the sky gave out a sudden cataclysmic pulse, a sound like thunder, but much more powerful, blasted across the sky and the world, bringing with it a crashing wave of the purest darkness, devouring everything.
Eve wanted to run, but her legs would not answer. She wanted to raise her arms in defense, but her arms felt like the weight of the world. As the wave of black washed over her, she could only close her eyes, expecting the inevitable. She plunged her into the abyss.
"Ughhh"
Eve awoke in a cold sweat. Eyes streaming. Again.
The dream. Again. It always felt like it was trying to tell her something, but this latest dream felt more tangible. Like something had reached out from afar and touched her mind.
She peeled herself out of her damp bedroll and sat on the edge of the bed. Her head in her hands, pounding. Hot tears rolling down her cheeks before dripping onto the old rug by her feet. Why was this happening? What did it mean? She looked around the broken down camper in which she'd made her home for the past several weeks.
She was in the far north of the continent. It was late September and Eve knew the weather would soon turn cold as autumn set in, and she knew it would soon be time to move on.
It had rained heavily during the night. The ground was damp and a thick mist had formed.
This had been her life now for a long time. Eve knew they would never stop hunting her, she was, and would always be a threat to them. Even if she knew, that threat to their continued dominion over this world, for better or worse, was no longer to be found in her.
There had been several men during her time out here in the world, and each encounter had failed to yield an offspring.
Whatever happened the night she chose to stand against the only other of her kind in defense of one who had always tried to protect her, something had changed.
She had awoken in an ambulance and been able to witness what she'd always wanted, a new life, a child growing within her, but before eve could even hold her child, another of her kind had struck, and in her weakened state, she was unable to stop it.
Eve had awoken some time later, on a cold slab with the feeling of intense heat down by her feet, much to the horror of a short man in blue medical scrubs who had immediately retreated from the room, the near deafening sound of an alarm quickly followed.
From there it was all a blur, she had stumbled aimlessly from room to room, through halls looking for an exit, she lost count of the amount of people who had attempted to stop her, attack her, using guns, electric prods and chlorine gas sprayers, her body had adapted to each attack, it always did, she had fought, she had run.
She gained enough strength to hammer her way through a wall and was immediately blinded by sunlight, her first time seeing it.
From there, it was a matter of just running, there had not been a wall of men with guns waiting this time, they had had no time to prepare. There were, however, pursuers, many of them.
Each bullet that struck her skin failed to penetrate, but there was pain, a stinging sensation. Unlike before, it had been manageable.
The more ground she covered, the less pursuers there were, however far, however fast they could run with all their training, she could best by a hundred fold.
The base in which she had been taken was not the same as before, this place was surrounded by dense woodland, rolling hills, cliffs, rivers and all manner of crags in which to hide and find shelter.
There had been helicopters of course and a number of close calls.
Eventually, the hours passed by without her pursuers catching up to her, and she had gained more ground, the hours became days, then weeks, then months and finally five years had passed.
Eve had, however, never let down her guard. She had, for the most part, remained concealed. Stolen, and borrowed where possible, but no ties, no long term entanglements.
Eve had found this place at the height of summer, it was close to a small town, into which she'd venture at night to scavenge and steal what she could.
For the most part, she never needed to steal much food from humans, she had found it to be plentiful out in the wilderness.
An old, broken down camper had been her home, and nearby, in the forest was a rare, natural hot spring, in which she'd clean herself and her belongings.
Though a great location, Eve had been initially cautious. There was evidence that the spring was once a spot that local young lovers would visit to enjoy one another's company.
Eve was wary of unwanted visitors, but her heightened senses would detect any interlopers long before they were able to stumble upon her camp site. No, this area had obviously fallen out of favor in recent times as she had never had any encroachments.
Eve had remained on high alert through the height of the summer, when such activities in this area were likely to occur, but none had, and now that autumn was on the way, it was unlikely to become a concern.
Eve had lived through several winters now, the cold never bothered her, but food was scarce. Her first winter, she had broken into several homes to find food, and had gotten sloppy, clumsy.
In one home, a large house in a leafy suburban area, Eve had been interrupted when the humans returned, the man had pulled out a gun and shot her several times, causing her to fall from a third story window.
Initially knocked unconscious by the fall, the gathered humans got more than a shock when she suddenly got to her feet, wounds healing and, in the stress of the moment, her "Other" had partially shown itself.
She had learned to control the "Other", what she had come to call her alternative form, in the time since her escape, but that was not one of her better moments. Now she was able to use it mainly for hunting.
The gathered humans had understandably all panicked and scattered, a few shots even rang out as she took flight into neighboring pastures and over the ensuing days, her pursuers from the compound had returned.
They tracked her with Dogs, Drones and Helicopters. She had only barely made it out of that area by making her way to a river and travelling its length, masking herself from heat scanners and scent trails, but losing all her possessions in the process.
Later on, humans from that town had shared images of her unusual visage on the internet, a camera had overlooked the driveway onto which she had fallen, also, several youngsters had filmed her on their phones.
Despite the pain. Eve counted herself lucky to have fallen face down, by the time she stood and turned, she was unrecognizable in her human skin.
#dragonlady had caused a small sensation and prompted her to get as far away from the area as possible. Thankfully they had not been able to get a close up of her face in human form.
As she relaxed in the steaming water, Eve considered where she would go this year. She had been thinking of a longer journey, one that would take her across oceans.
She knew there was a risk of exposure, but there were parts of the world she'd read about that she wanted to see. A journey by air would be far too risky, but a journey by sea appealed to her.
She had spent the majority of her time bouncing around the United States, never staying in one place too long.
As she bathed, she found herself drifting away into another memory. Eve had, at one point crossed into Mexico, hoping to keep going south. However she had stopped in a mid-sized town roughly two hundred miles south of the border.
Something had felt wrong more or less immediately after she arrived, though she found herself unable to place it. Instinct demanded flight. She had planned to quickly gather food, water and head out as soon as possible, but something had kept her there.
She felt drawn to a run down industrial zone on the edge of the town. There she found the freshly burned out remains of a lab, a lab that had been used to generate more like her.
Eve had discovered a hidden vault partially exposed beneath charred decking. Upon tearing it open she had found the scientist's files. Some hard copies and a number of hard drives.
Pausing to read what she could, she had discovered his name was Forbes, and he had worked on the original project, but appeared to have gone rogue. Setting up this underground lab to continue the project himself. Something had gone wrong as it always, inevitably would.
He had been killed, his lab burned to the ground and the remnants of his failed experiments were now running rampant all over the town.
Against instinct, and her better judgement, Eve had lingered there too long, when the sun set, the true horror had begun.
Eve couldn't initially sense them clearly as they were of an inferior brood, disconnected, less intelligent, but more animalistic. They were the throwaways of Forbes' experiments, his rejects.
That night, over two dozen of them attacked the town, and a number of them had been drawn to Eve like moths to a flame.
The local authorities were overwhelmed within the first couple of hours and before long, the people of the town were reduced to a desperate few, barricaded inside a police station.
After fighting off several of the errant Brood within the remnants of the lab, Eve had initially intended to leave the people to their fate, after all, it wouldn't be too long before the people pursuing Eve caught wind of this and arrived in force.
However, something in her, that nagging feeling returned, something just couldn't, wouldn't allow her to leave those people behind.
In the end, she had made the decision, once again, to stand against her own kind in defense of those who could not protect themselves.
Eve released the "Other" in full force, decimating the remaining Brood. In the end, she had felt that familiar internal shift as her body adapted to new threats. Each battle made Eve stronger.
True enough, a number of investigators from the project had arrived soon thereafter. Eve slipped away, but not before imparting what she'd found in the lab to the young Police officer who had been protecting the civilians in the station.
Consuela Álverez had been the last officer left standing, and, after initial, understandable distrust, had aided Eve in dispatching the last of the Brood.
Álverez had promised to find Laura, and give the files to nobody but her. Eve had slipped away just as the authorities eventually rolled in.
She had then made her way to the far north of the continent. A place of mountains, forests and lakes, a place where someone like her could disappear into the wilds. It was a good place to hide, but the winters here were harsh.
Eve had grown used to her isolation, however, where possible, she enjoyed being around people.
The demographic she had typically interacted with had been the transient, or homeless population of any given region where she found herself.
She had even met a few she would have come to call friends, but she was always wary of her pursuers, and knew not what they would do to anyone she grew too close with. Thus, Eve had chosen a form of self imposed exile from all society.
For a time, all was well, but then the dreams started. They did not come every night, but each time they did return, a new detail, and left her feeling disturbed.
It had been happening for months. At random. Like the dreams that initially told her to mate, to release the Other, to hunt, kill, to make more and more.
Those dreams had died away with time. Eve had forced them out. She had fought against her own kind twice.
Eve had made that choice, that she was not some human experiment, nor was she the proxy weapon of some alien hegemony, she was her own being, and she would be defined by none but herself.
But this time it felt different. Each time the dream came, it felt like something immensely powerful had its eye on her, watching from afar. Somewhere cold, somewhere unfathomably dark.
It was not so much a dream, but a connection. Like the way she had linked with another of her kind, to help the humans, but this was different, more potent, more …. Alien
Time passed and the sun had risen. It was mid morning. Eve had snapped herself away from her thoughts long enough to climb out of the spring, dress herself and eat. She looked around her camp, selecting the items she wished to take with her and folding them neatly into her pack.
What she didn't intend to take was disposed of in a small fire she re-lit from the previous night. As Eve stared into the flames, she thought of Laura.
She wondered what she was doing now, where she was, whether she was still part of the effort to hunt her, whether she'd gotten the files from Álverez and of course, what she was doing with them.
She had never sensed Laura in those moments when the hunters got close, for that matter, she had not sensed Laura's companion, the man, Press. Eve and he had had no meaningful interactions, but she sensed the way Laura felt about him every time she'd watched them interact.
Eve bid farewell to her dwelling and began her hike through the forest. She felt fresh, resolved.
This time, she did not plan on heading South, she would head West, she would make her way to the coast and cross the Bering Sea, she would see new places, new people, she would leave this continent behind for an older part of the world.
Eve could cover much more ground than a human, not needing to stop at night. She made camp as and when she felt it necessary, and only ever in hard to reach places, to gather more supplies and move on.
As she walked, Eve remembered what Laura had told her of the one that came before her, how a message from deep space had led humans to create them both.
Sil had been created to satisfy human curiosity, but had proven to be an existential threat to all life on Earth. Eve had been created for the sole purpose of finding a way to exterminate that threat.
Eve wondered why, and whether it was connected to the presence that was now haunting her dreams.
If so, then she feared Laura was wrong about the origin of the message. Laura referred to them in such terms as "The species/the aliens/the people/the beings" that sent the transmission. Always a plural, and therein lay the problem. The assumption.
Those descriptions denoted a collective effort by a race of beings, a group of individuals, a meeting of minds for a common purpose, much like the humans sending out their messages to reach out to others in the universe.
Eve had read about it. SETI. It had been a group effort of many potent minds to put together the necessary data, build the facilities capable of sending out such a transmission and finally deciding what to send.
Something had heard that message, and something had responded, and Eve was growing increasingly convinced that that same something was now attempting to reach out to her.
IT did not feel like a group, a nation, a race of beings reaching out to her.
Instead it felt…. Singular… radiating immense levels of power, of raw presence, but nevertheless, an individual consciousness, many orders of magnitude above her, or anything of which she was aware.
"Regent…. Regent?"
Eve wondered if Laura, or those who initially deciphered the message had ever even considered it the work of not the many, but the One, and given its content, what that "One's" intentions truly were.
"Ruler? Governor? Sovereign?... What did that even mean?".
Going through all the synonyms of "Regent" wouldn't help, she felt the weight of it, it had a deeper context.
What could one individual stand to gain from biologically usurping and annihilating entire worlds one after the other.
All those dead, broken worlds in the dream. Had this played out on all those worlds brought to ruin.
Why?
Eve eventually emerged onto an old railroad, long abandoned and pulled out her compass.
The old line had long deteriorated into little more than a widened trail. Fortuitously it ran West/East. "Ok… West".
As she made her way toward wherever this trail would take her, the dream played on her mind. It all meant something, and that truth, whatever it was… was terrifying.
[[My first ever Fanfic, something I actually cooked up during Lockdown after binge watching Species 1&2. I recently re-discovered the doc and made a few updates. I may carry this on as I have a few good ideas floating around in between creating my own, large scale original story (Think Mass Effect with a dash of 40k). Let me know your thoughts, I'm happy to chat]]
EDIT [Corrected a few Typos and added a Chapter Title. One other thing I should point out, you may notice from the narrative the mention of phones, hashtags and the use of Drones, I've simply brought forward the narrative to make it more accessible, the movies and their corresponding novelizations were set in the 90's and 00's, this imagines it's set in the present day]