Tag: Aliens

51. Cassandra (WIP)

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

Okay, so instead of an actual full chapter I’m posting a kind of half assed chapter and some brief summations of things I intended with it, and I’m going to kind of skip this part to move on to the remainder of the story and finish it out. Part of the reason for this is that there are whole sections involving this part that are going to be completely rewritten. When I work on my rewrites, the Interludes are going to be more frequent and involve the tensions between Cassandra and Jennifer’s relationships as parent/child.

There were also a few things that were supposed to happen before this point that I simply forgot to add in. Most significant being that Jennifer was supposed to hear Asterollan reveal Cassandra’s diagnosis and then she was supposed to sit and decide whether to read or not read the letter (I have not decided yet whether she will at this point or not). Which of course informs a lot of her interactions with Cassandra in this chapter. And since I flubbed all that, I can’t expand on it here. So basically within this chapter, Cassandra and Jennifer are supposed to defeat the bad aliens, save the day, return to Earth.

Since I’m also already blabbing on about intentions for the story, I’ll go ahead and discuss something that I was saving for when I finished to give an idea of next steps. I’ve been taking notes on things I definitely plan to expand upon when I do my rewrites. The notes are as follows:

  • Lucas will start off awkwardly calling Peyton “Miss Hobbs” because calling her by her first name sounds too informal, and he will kick himself in the head for it immediately because he knows it sounds dumb, but stubbornly stick to it for more than half the book.
  • Add show instead of tell where possible.
  • No clear baddie at first beyond the “idea” of a bad guy, need to impress stakes upon the characters from an earlier point
  • Have Cassandra see her goddess out of the corner of her eye from earlier, and maybe even the bad guy?
  • Show more interlude bits of Jennifer reacting to the feeds. These are likely to be shorter insets anyways
  • Evil being = god ascendant?
  • Change Peter to Parker?
  • When Lexie has her god meeting, she should start to display fiery properties to her aura when she reaches for her magic. Her god grants her full power earlier after all.
  • Play up awkward for Lucas and anxious for Cassandra.
  • Expand upon the characters and world a bit and have them stay a bit longer in a few places. Greyjon should have celebrated and well known military accomplishments that people comment on when they meet him, etcetc.

So when I actually go through and do the edits, a lot of the minor characters are going to become more important, places are actually going to get named, history is going to be built in, and themes are going to be strengthened. My next rewrite will be shameless expansion and bloat and worldbuilding. And then my third rewrite will be trimming that back down and tightening everything into place.

So all that in mind, here is my sloppy writing to stand in place for Chapter 51, and then next week I will move on to Chapter 52, which switches back to Lucas.

As we freed the prisoners, I worked on ripping out the dampeners and healing the small remaining wounds one at a time. Despite the tedious and tiring nature of the work, the blaring alarm kept me on high alert, my system coursing with adrenaline. As the crowd of freed prisoners grew, I felt my indignation grow as well. There were so many people here – some were of the same race, prisoners from the same world, but still the variety accounted for well over a dozen worlds. And all these worlds had been destroyed? Just like these aliens planned to do to Earth…

Even as worn out as I felt, I was swept up with the group as someone led us toward the main deck of the ship. I’m not sure if anyone had an actual plan or if they were just spurred by anger and revenge. The alarms grew louder as we moved through the halls, and soon the sound of fighting reached my ears. Those at the front of the group sped into a jog, and soon all of us were sprinting towards whatever lay ahead, toward the cacophony.

It was as chaotic as it sounded. An entirely separate group of freed prisoners were in the middle of fighting across the control deck. They had somehow managed to gather weapons, but despite that advantage they still faced one major disadvantage – they lacked their magical abilities. I gaped as I watched the strange abilities of the tripod-things as they cast their spells – they shifted through space, turned invisible, and easily deflected projectiles by redirecting them through small holes in space. As a result, the entire room was a chaos of unpredictable weapons fire and screaming.

I paused outside the doorway as everyone else charged into the fray, watching as the new group of prisoners that could use magic began to channel their own strange abilities. It was obvious that magic was going to be a deciding factor in this fight. I leaned against the wall outside the door, my brow furrowing as I considered what I could do. I needed to remove all the magic dampeners in the other prisoners… after having removed so many individually, could I sense them without placing hands on each individual?

I squeezed my eyes shut, focusing hard, pushing out with my magic searchingly. I focused first on finding the small pieces of metal but couldn’t seem to focus on something so small across so many different bodies.

I took three deep breaths and reoriented myself. I focused on the room, on all the life forms in the room. I could sense them. I instantly got a sense for how many people were in the room fighting. I could feel their injuries, their illnesses, the strains on their bodies. I frowned hard, realizing some of them were human even, but then forced myself to focus past that…

I couldn’t focus on finding the little pieces of metal that I had hoped to find. But I realized that so many people on our side were injured… perhaps I could at least get them back in the fight.

I cast a healing spell across the entire room.

For a brief moment, everything got louder as those that were on the brink of death launched themselves back into the fight. But casting so much and so continuously since I had arrived finally wore me out. I slumped against the wall, my head pounding and the world spinning as I got alarmingly close to passing out.

A blurry figure knelt in front of me. I blinked to clear my vision, and remembered that without glasses, it would never be fully clear. I squinted. “Cassandra,” a familiar voice said, the tone a cross between gently maternal and sternly cross.

“Mom?” I said, feeling so confused I was certain that maybe I had passed out and started dreaming. She repeated my name again, telling me to get up. “What are you doing here?” I mumbled. She stared at me for a long moment and then hugged me. I hugged her back, still confused. “What’s going on?” I wondered out loud, not really sure what to think anymore.

“We’re going to blow up the ship,” she announced.

I stared at her in confusion. “What?!”

She pulled me along behind her, gripping my arm tight. I was still dizzy from expending so much power. “The aliens you freed were the last of the prisoners from the other prison wing. The ones I was working with know what the plan is – they’ll get them out,” she reassured me as we walked. “On our way up to the deck, we found the fuel system for the ship, and the energy source and be overloaded.”

“Mom, wait. I don’t even know why you’re here.”

She flashed me a mildly annoyed look. “I came out of retirement after you disappeared and the Stream started?”

“Stream?” I mumbled.

Ignoring my question, she said, “Once we overload the system, we’re going to have to make a quick escape. So stay close to me.”

“Why are we doing this exactly?” I asked as I finally pulled my arm out of her grip. I kept pace with her as she continued to half-jog down the hall.

“The aliens that run this ship are starting their invasion of Earth. From the various aliens I’ve talked to, they apparently stage everything from this ship. Even if the invasion is already underway, if we destroy their base, they won’t have anywhere to return and regroup.” I nodded like I understood, but I was tired. I was homesick for Earth, but also homesick for Lyre, and a part of me wanted to find a dark and quiet room to curl up and cry in undisturbed until the cancer killed me.

50. Cassandra & Interlude

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

Cassandra

The hour was up. I could hear my heartbeat whooshing in my eardrums as I finally pulled away from Lyre, slowly dressing, wanting to make every moment last longer. As I finally exited the building, I could feel his hand gripping mine tight, like it had so often through our entire journey. It was hard to focus and I felt numb, like I was on autopilot. I said my goodbyes to everyone, smiling and reassuring Lexie that I’d make sure her family was safe and let them know she was okay.

Finally, I turned to look up at the dark black orb as it hovered close. I pulled my hand away from Lyre’s as I did so, taking a deep and shaky breath. I felt his fingers brush against the back of my hand as I pulled away, and could feel his reluctance to let go in the gesture. “I’m ready,” I said, my throat feeling dry. I could barely speak around the feeling of my heart blocking my throat. “Take me back.”

For a split second I felt like turning around to catch a last glimpse of Lyre, of everyone, but it happened so fast I never got the chance. The colors of the world around me swirled into light and sound and I gasped as I felt an immense weight press all around me, my ears popping at the pressure of it. It felt like I was going to implode. It was hard to maintain consciousness – I blacked out.

When I came to, I found myself on my knees, coughing and gasping for air, and I pressed my eyes shut against an overwhelming sense of vertigo. The floor beneath me was metal, cool to the touch, and I leaned forward to press my forehead against it and screamed.

When I finally stopped, I became aware of how heavy my body felt now. I could immediately feel the dull ache deep in my hip on the side that had been crushed in that car wreck so many years ago. I could feel a strange exhaustion set deep in my bones. I felt my breathing quicken for a moment as the realization hit – the cancer was back. I was going to die. Maybe not today, but soon. I wanted to indulge in curling into a ball on the floor and sobbing. A tremendous sense of loss washed over me, and I didn’t want to open my eyes and face where I had arrived. But I could hear noises around me – in the distance, there was a muffled alarm sounding, like hearing emergency alerts on other peoples’ phones in public. There was the stirring of air as I heard a door opening, and I sensed something moving close to me.

Before I could look up, cold metal pressed against my neck. Gasping in surprise, I jerked automatically, pulling away from whatever it was. There was a soft hissing sound of air pressure, and a metallic clang as something bounced off the floor below me. I immediately reached for my magic – I did it without thinking, having used it so naturally for months at this point. I could feel it – it was weaker than before, empty and solitary, lacking the presence of T’Keran – and I used it to push the person that had pressed the metal object to my neck away.

Opening my eyes, I found myself having to squint at how blurry my vision was without glasses. I moved closer to the slumped figure I had attacked to see it more clearly. I was in a small square room and the force of my magic had shoved the person I attacked all the way out into the hall. It was humanoid, with three arms and three legs and a broad face. Three eyes blinked up at me in a daze as its large mouth gaped open, and it emitted a soft noise of pain and surprise – somehow it must have hit the doorframe on its way out and broken two of its legs. I winced, seeing one leg twisted unnaturally under its body and the other splayed out limply with a bone poking through. I could see that it held a strange metal object firmly in its hand, that looked alarmingly like a gun. It weakly raised the object to point it at me, and I lashed out with my magic again, slamming the hand back and causing the metal object to fling down the hall.

I paused, completely unsure of what to do. I felt immediately guilty – if these were the creatures that brought me back, would they decide to attack Earth because of what I had just done? Should I have surrendered? I stood floundering in indecision, wondering if I should heal the creature before me, wondering about the loud blaring alarm in the distance. A strange croaking voice said, “Human! Cashdra-human!” My head swiveled toward the sound – I was in a hallway lined with semi-transparent doors, and I could see at least two blurry figures standing close to those doors, watching what was happening. “Let out! Let out!” the voice croaked, sounding a lot like a very large frog.

“What?” I asked stupidly, feeling a swell of anxiety. I moved closer to the door. There was a button right next to it, and I wondered for a moment if it could be that easy before I pushed it.

The door slid open.

I squinted at the figure standing before me. It actually did look like a giant humanoid frog – the skin was dry and pebbly, giving it a more reptilian look. Its large eyes and strangely shaped pupils focused past me at the creature still slumped on the ground, and its body mass expanded as it drew in air, releasing it in a shockingly loud hiss. I stepped back, shocked at the explosion of sound, and the frog-thing rushed past me. It moved faster than I would have expected, and began to slam the head of the tripod-thing into the floor repeatedly using its strong hind legs. I gasped and looked away, completely shocked at the sudden gore as the head smashed open and the insides splattered out, and I felt my knees give out.

I sat on the floor, trembling in terror. My mind reeled, wondering what was happening. I had returned home, hadn’t I? I could hear the heavy breathing of the frog-thing as it moved past me, having beat the tripod-thing to death – it opened the other door and the other shadow stepped out.

The frog-thing approached me. “Cashdra-human,” it said, reaching out its strange three fingered hand. I gaped at it, wide eyed with shock.

“What?” I asked again, my voice a lot quieter this time.

A different being moved forward, this one tall and thin with almost translucent gray skin. It looked almost human, and had large green-black eyes. I could not see a mouth moving when it spoke, the voice seemed to simply hover out of its chest. “He is calling you by name and clan. Cassandra, human.”

I shivered, staring up as the other figure moved close to me. “How does he know my name?”

“We’ve all been watching you while you journeyed.”

I felt my blood run cold as my head swiveled around and I squinted at each of them. “Watching me,” I repeated, my voice flat as I tried to comprehend the statement.

“We are all victims here. We have all shared the same story. We have all traveled by magic between worlds, and been brought back by the threat of our home’s destruction.” The gray figure reached a hand out to me – it had the appropriate number of fingers, but they were long and thin, and the hand looked almost too fragile. I hesitantly took it and was surprised to find it was stronger than it appeared. I also reached out and took the frog’s hand. Together, they pulled me up easily. “I am sorry, human. They lied to you. They plan to destroy your world regardless. The invasion of your Earth will begin soon.”

“What!?” I shouted. “They’re going to invade anyway?”

The creatures in front of me glanced at each other, their expressions a mix of sadness and understanding. The frog nodded. “They invade. No matter choice.” It moved past me and back to the body of the tripod-thing, rummaging through its clothes.

“We have to do something,” I said. Doing my best to ignore the mess of a body still sprawled on the floor, I moved over to the metal object it had been holding. “Is this a weapon?” I asked, picking it up and examining it.

“Not entirely. It holds small metal magic dampening devices, that would inhibit casting ability.” I shivered as the gray alien spoke, realizing how close I had come to being rendered completely defenseless. “They use them on all of us, to make sure we can’t use our abilities against them.”

“You can use magic too?” I asked, surprised. I dropped the gun.

The creature nodded, and said, “We all can. And they can too. Its how they find us…”

I moved forward, placing my hands on either side of the creature’s face. I focused my healing ability, remembering how I could sense illnesses and infections in a body, I instead focused on finding anything that seemed foreign, and found it – no larger than a grain of rice, a small metallic piece in the base of the neck. I frowned, trying to think of how to remove it, before deciding to simply rip it out. I focused on pulling it straight out the way it had entered. I heard the gray person gasp and tense under my fingers as it felt the metal move, and then it cried out as the dampener ripped through its skin. I heard the metal clatter to the floor, but focused instead on healing the small wound left in its wake. Finally, I stepped away.

The gray being lifted a hand to its neck, touching where the wound had been. A strange series of expressions flitted across its face – then it pointed a finger out toward where the magic dampener had landed. The small piece of metal rose into the air. The gray being twisted its wrist and clenched its fist, and the metal twisted and disintegrated. “I can…” its voice trailed off briefly, then it looked at me and nodded. “Thank you,” it said.

“How many others here are like us?” I asked.

“Many. They have been to many worlds.” It turned its head towards the frog. “Have you discovered why the alarm is sounding?”

I grimaced. Many worlds? Destroyed? What kind of people would do such a thing? I realized the frog had taken a tablet like device from the body, and was now examining something on the screen. “Alarm. Intruders here.”

I frowned as he spoke. “Where is here, anyway?”

The gray being nodded, a thoughtful look on its face. “We will explain. But help us free the other prisoners, and remove their dampeners as well. We will have a better chance then.”

I nodded. “Lead the way.”

Interlude

After seeing the Stream go dark, Jennifer turned to Polypt, her mind racing. “When you were brought back, what happened? Were you brought to this ship immediately?”

The alien tilted its mantis-like head, regarding Jennifer with its large black eyes. “I was brought to the ship, directly to my prison here. The first thing they do when you return is embed a device into your body that dampens your ability to use magic. Immediately after, the invasion begins.”

Jennifer paused a moment, trying to process that information. If she had known that they were so close to starting their plans, she would have immediately reached out to other departments so everyone could be on high alert back on Earth. Her suicidal rescue mission had suddenly grown a lot more complicated. “How do they proceed with the invasion? Do they already have units on the planet ready to strike, or do they leave from the ship directly?”

Polypt made a gesture – Jennifer realized it was a shrug. “I was in captivity. I was not privy to the details.”

Jennifer let loose a string of expletives under her breath and twisted on her heel, immediately issuing orders for Reese and Hall to get the other humans to the nearest vehicles they could find and get them home. She also told them that the invasion was going to start, maybe had already started, and they needed to alert everyone as soon as they landed. She told Polypt to go with them. “I could help you here,” Polypt protested briefly.

“They’re going to need at least three vehicles to get everyone back to Earth,” Jennifer said. “And you’re the only other one that can operate one. Also, having an actual alien warning against an alien invasion should light a fire under someone’s ass.  I’ll go alone. Any ideas on how I can find the prison block where they’ll keep Cassandra?”

“Much of this level is made up of prisons,” a low growling voice said, surprisingly close. Jennifer frowned, looking over at the furry creature, which now stood close to her and Polypt. She hadn’t been aware of it moving up to them in the first place, but she didn’t allow her discomfort at that to show. For a moment, she wanted to ask how everyone seemed to know English – was it watching the Stream broadcast daily for so many months? Was there more magic at work? But she quickly dismissed these thoughts – they were questions for a less hectic moment. “But there is another row of prisons on the far side of the ship as well.”

“So she could be close,” Jennifer said again. She paused, not certain what to say to the creature, then settled for, “Thank you. If you want to escape, you can go with the humans.”

The creature regarded her passively, with those strange glowing eyes. Jennifer kept her expression carefully composed, annoyed at how inexpressive both aliens before her appeared. “I will go with you. We will release all the prisoners, and seize control of the ship.”

Jennifer blinked, a little surprised at the idea. She hadn’t thought of recruiting help from the prisoners on the ship, but it made sense, and if the invasion launched from the ship, perhaps they could cause enough chaos to delay or even stop it before it really got underway. “How many prisoners are there?”

“Impossible to say. Sometimes they take multiple prisoners from planets – hostages, in case they are discovered before their drama plays out, and the travelers that return to save their homes.” The creature’s eyes burned brighter for a moment, set and determined.

Jennifer nodded. “Let’s go.”

There were multiple hallways like the one that Jennifer had exited, each holding rows of cells. Some were empty, some held only one or two individuals, and others were packed full. Jennifer boggled nearly every time they released hallway after hallway of strange looking aliens – there were so many different looking creatures, some that looked humanoid and others that looked so vastly different that she wondered at first if they even understood her as she addressed them. But she kept a clear head and gave clear and concise instructions – whoever wanted to escape was free to find their own exit. Anyone that wanted to stay should join them in taking the ship.

There were many that stayed. It seemed the desire for revenge was strong amongst them, which made sense if they had all witnessed the destruction of their home worlds.

The siren from earlier still sounded, but the Bastards hadn’t figured out that the prison levels were a problem yet. Jennifer prayed silently that her original team had stayed safe through their own dangerous game of cat and mouse around the ship, and was pleased that it had kept danger away. “This is the end of the cell blocks on this side of the ship,” the furry creature informed her after they freed the last hallway of aliens.

Jennifer sighed. She had searched nearly every strange face for Cassandra, but hadn’t seen her daughter yet. Her fingers absently brushed the pocket where the letter was still secured. Jennifer glanced back at the ragtag group of aliens that filled out the hall behind her. She weighed her choices. If they took the ship, she could search for Cassandra at her leisure – her daughter would be safe enough holed up in a prison cell. Nodding decisively to herself, she said, “Does anyone know where they control the ship from? Is there a… a bridge? A command center?” A few of the aliens did know. “Good, lead the way. We’ll check rooms as we go – we’re looking for any weapons we can use, and we’ll beat them out of the hands of anyone we run across. We’re going to take this ship.” A strange chorus of cheers, hoots, and growls echoed in the air around her.

49. Interlude

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

  Jennifer had made the mistake of asking Vincent and Polypt if there was a way to see outside of the vehicle. It was made of a smooth opaque metal and there were no windows of any sort – the only structures the ship seemed to have inside included a storage cabinet that looked half built into the smooth wall and a control panel that Polypt had been showing to Vincent and the other team members as they arrived. She had thought that perhaps a screen would display the outside of the ship, but instead the smooth metal of the hull itself seemed to become transparent, giving a full 360-degree view of the outside. The control panel inside remained solid and opaque, as did the cabinet.

Jennifer had shifted nervously at the change, glancing down to see that even the floor of the ship had gone transparent. It unnerved her to be standing on something that felt solid enough under her feet but that she couldn’t see – like she was floating. She wanted it to return immediately to how it had been, but her stubborn streak kept her silent – she didn’t want to admit that it unnerved her.

 They waited for the rest of the team to arrive, each member getting a basic rundown on vehicle operation. Jennifer felt inwardly relieved to see that some of them were more visibly disturbed by the interior view. Once they were all gathered, Vincent had made a final plea to be included in the mission. “I’ve already learned so much about this craft. Just let me stay in it, you don’t even have to take me into the mothership,” he pleaded.

 Jennifer pursed her lips when he said “mothership,” wondering if he was taking any of it seriously, and gently but firmly insisted that he could not go. He finally nodded and stepped off the ship, still upset but at least following orders. Once the exterior was sealed, Polypt operated the controls. It was like zooming out on Google maps if they had decided to make Google maps a VR experience. There was nothing to grab onto, so Jennifer clenched her hands into fists and held her breath as the ground dropped away at an alarming rate, and Vincent’s pouting figure disappeared beneath them.

 If someone had told Jennifer that she was on a moving vehicle, she might not have believed it. There was no rumbling, shaking, or gravitation pull as the ship accelerated into the sky, so as far as her body was concerned, she was standing completely still in a quiet room.

 That made the view somehow worse.

 A part of her had thought that it would take longer. That the trip itself would be more substantial. But instead, the horizon of the world peeled back, revealing the curvature of the Earth, and all too soon they were above the atmosphere. Several members of the team gasped in awe at the sight spread below them, Jennifer included. It was amazing. For a moment, her mind reeled trying to tick off in her head how many women had been to space, but it was a subject on which she was woefully lacking in knowledge. The moon landing had occurred when she was a toddler, but she still had vague memories of the day, of her father’s excitement and how contagious it had been.

 “We’re approaching the ship,” Polypt said, her mandibles clicking softly as she spoke. Jennifer’s head swiveled, trying to spot it, causing Polypt to make a strange rustling click that Jennifer realized was a laugh. “It’s invisible. The sensors on the control know where it’s located at least, and will dock us into a craft notch appropriately.”

 Jennifer nodded, feeling a flutter of trepidation. “And they won’t know we’re coming?”

“No. They know that I escaped on one of their craft, but they are not expecting my return. They sent several craft down to search for me, but I have been using my time waiting for your team tracking those vehicles. Vincent was able to make it appear that we are another of those craft, returning earlier than scheduled.”

Jennifer nodded, frowning slightly. “Vincent was able to do that?”

 Polypt nodded. “He learned quickly what I showed him, and improvised intuitively from there.”

Jennifer considered that for a moment, already experiencing her first twinge of regret so early in the mission. “Do you think we should have brought him with us?”

Polypt’s head swiveled around as her body remained still, tilting slightly, and staring at Jennifer with large, glittering eyes. “No. He would have not have been helpful going forward.” Jennifer stared back wordlessly as Polypt’s head turned to focus forward once more. “We are ready to dock. The location this craft notches into leads out into a hallway There should be no one there to greet us, but we should be cautious exiting in case someone happens to be passing by.”

 Jennifer nodded, gesturing for her team to arm themselves and to step close, reaffirming the plan although they had all gone over it already. As a prisoner, Polypt had very little knowledge of the ship. The only interior space that she was aware of as large enough to store a full airplane was a docking bay where equipment and supplies could be loaded. They would go to investigate the airplane and retrieve the black box. After that, Polypt would lead them to the area where she had been kept, where there were more holding cells for other prisoners. Polypt suspected that humans were being kept in the cells neighboring hers.

If they were caught, the plan was to split up – Hall and Reese would accompany Jennifer and Polypt to the holding cells to find and account for all the human prisoners. The Rescue team would take anyone they found immediately to whatever nearby craft they could escape on. The others would split up and cause chaos, drawing the Bastards away from the Rescue team. After an hour, regardless of mission success, everyone was to find the nearest craft to abscond with and operate it well enough to at least crash into the Earth below.

  It was suicide, but it was the best they could manage on short notice. What if the humans were imprisoned in a different part of the ship completely? What if they weren’t alive? What if the plane had been broken down completely? What if they were immediately spotted and their tactics and weaponry were easily outpowered and outmaneuvered and they were captured? What if, what if, what if… and even if they did everything great and all piled into the nearest several crafts they could commandeer, what if they controlled the thing so poorly that they shot off into space instead of towards the Earth? They all only had a basic crash course on operating the vehicles, after all.

 The craft slid into place so smoothly that Jennifer didn’t know they had finished docking until Polypt said, “Be ready.” Jennifer nodded, gripping her handgun loosely at the ready, gesturing Manuel and another member of the team forward. As the exit opened, it revealed a beige hallway with taupe floors that looked almost like a smooth stone. The color scheme threw Jennifer off for a moment – perhaps in her mind she had a mental image of something sleek and futuristic, gray, black and white, smooth metal like the vehicle they had just arrived in before it had gone transparent. Something with harsh white and blue lights.

 The two that had moved toward the door peaked down both sides of the hall, then gestured that the coast was clear. Polypt took the lead – she claimed to have a peerless internal sense of direction and remembered the way clearly. As the entire team moved down the hall, Jennifer realized she could hear the faint sounds of voices speaking in English. “What is that?” she asked quietly.

“They play the broadcast – what you call the Stream – through the entire ship. It is available to watch in every room, and as such is easily heard even in places where it is not playing.” Jennifer strained her ears for a moment, attempting to pick up the sounds of her daughter’s familiar voice, then shook her head. She had no time to focus on anything but this mission.

Luckily, the first part went smoothly. Polypt led them directly to the storage bay, and they only had to duck back to avoid a pair of figures walking ahead one time. Despite their curiosity to see what the Bastards looked like, not a single member of the team attempted peaking too long at them, and Jennifer was inwardly proud of their resolve. The storage bay seemed miraculously unoccupied. The plane sat out in the open, gleaming in the lights that flickered to life automatically as they entered the room.

 “That’s it. Flight 5071,” Reese let out a low whistle, lowering his weapon as he looked over the length of the plane. “All in one piece.”

 “Think of how many hours we spent looking for broken bits,” Hall griped, grimacing.

“This is good, we know that the crew and passengers all came aboard in one piece,” someone else said as well.

“Enough chatter. Obtain the black box and perform a cursory search of the plane.” Jennifer stood back, keeping an eye on the door with Polypt and Manuel as the others entered the plane, performing a quick sweep and grabbing the black box. She listened to the sound of the Stream playing faintly in the air, and heard a voice shouting loud within it, fiercely declaring, “She’ll die! She had less than a year to live!” Jennifer frowned, her fingers traveling to the pocket where she kept the letter from Cassandra, and wondered what was happening in the Stream.

Hall and Reese were back out first, Reese securing the box in his pack. The rest of the team trailed out after their cursory search of the plane, reporting that the people were predictably absent. In fact, most of the plane’s interior had been cleaned out. All the oxygen masks had been hanging loose and the trays were down, and all the chairs were in their upright position. All the luggage compartments were open but empty. The plane itself was intact, but most other items had been removed. The food cart, the snacks, the brochures, the luggage, anything that seemed immediately removable was gone.

 “What would be the point in cleaning everything out and leaving the plane intact?” one asked, ruffling his hair.

 “Perhaps they let the passengers keep their personal items? Maybe they were studying everything? Hard to say,” Manuel responded.

 Jennifer turned to Polypt to ask her to lead the way to the holding cells when Reese, still standing at the door, hissed, “We’re about to have contact!”

 Reese and Hall quickly moved back from the entrance and let the door shut behind them. Every member of the team took aim. There was a long and drawn-out moment of anticipation. Jennifer wondered if perhaps the alien would walk past, continue down the hallway, and it almost seemed like that might be the case. But then the figure paused, turned back and stepped through the entrance, frowning up at the lights that were inexplicably on when they shouldn’t be.

Everything about it came in threes. It moved on three legs, set evenly around the body like a tripod, and had three arms, one set on other side of its humanoid torso and one smaller appendage rising from its sternum, holding what looked like some kind of electronic device like a tablet. Three eyes arranged across a broad flat face. For a moment, Jennifer had a hard time understanding the face, which seemed to lack a nose or mouth, until a seam somewhere near the chin gaped open, revealing small, round, pearly teeth. Its skin tone was just a little too unnaturally pink, and the eyes were large and pale grey in shade.

  The eyes widened as the mouth gaped in shock, and it pushed up with all three legs to its full height and let out a soft shriek, like an animal trying to make itself look more threatening. It slammed one of its hands down on the tablet it held in the smaller appendage just as it was ripped to shreds by gunfire. Polypt’s head swiveled as a faint ringing sound started in the distance, not dissimilar to a radio alarm clock.

  Jennifer grunted angrily, kicking the tablet out of the weakened grip of the creature’s body. Purplish black blood left a smear in its wake as it skittered across the floor. “Okay, people, we’re on a time crunch now. Go, draw attention away from the Rescue crew for one hour, then find a vehicle notch and launch back to Earth.” Several grim faces nodded, filing out into the hallway, and splitting up to run in different directions. Jennifer sighed and turned to Polypt, Reese, and Hall. “Take us to the prisoner cell blocks,” Jennifer said.

 Polypt led them into maintenance ducts to keep them out of sight. The alarms were more muffled here, and as they moved past rooms, Jennifer could hear bits and pieces of the Stream a bit more clearly. She could hear snatches of conversation about someone returning. So the choice had been presented… Jennifer wished she could sit and watch for a moment, find out who was being sent back, but she didn’t have time for that. If the choice was presented, the attack on Earth would be starting soon.

Despite her size, Polypt crept easily through the space. It wasn’t long until Polypt swiveled her head back around to say, “We are in the cell block where I was kept. This maintenance passage attaches to each room on this side, so we can begin to check the spaces as we pass.” Polypt’s head swiveled back to the room they were next to. “This one does not appear to have a human. This individual was here when I escaped.”

She moved on ahead of them. Jennifer followed, peering into the room curiously. Inside was a strange, furry creature that was laying on the bed. The room was sparse, but did appear to have some basic amenities and the creature did appear to have some personal items in the room. Just ahead, Polypt said, “This was my cell.” Something in her voice was strangely emotional for once, and she moved by the room quickly. Jennifer peered in curiously, but it had been cleared of personal items, or perhaps Polypt didn’t have anything to her name.

 “There are newer occupants here. They appear to be human.”

 Jennifer sighed in frustration. The cell block stopped at 30 cells and even with 2 people to each cramped space, they had not accounted for all the passengers and crew. “I don’t suppose you know of another cell block?” Jennifer asked.

  Polypt frowned, shaking her head. “I do not,” she said. “This is just one side of this hallway. There are an equal amount of cells on the other side.”

 Jennifer frowned. If those were all loaded with more people per room, there was a chance that it meant everyone was here… but if they had other aliens, or even if they had two people to each cell like they did on this side, that still didn’t account for everyone. They found an exit and checked the rooms on the other side, walking down the hall and peaking into the doors. The other side was thankfully all humans, but there were only 2 to each room as she had suspected, which accounted for 116 individuals. Including the 4 that had traveled to another world, they knew where 120 people of Flight 5071 were. Which still left 12 either dead or unaccounted for. Still, the vast majority of people they were looking for were here and they were on a time crunch. Polypt found a panel that opened the doors in the area, which slid up into the ceiling. Curious faces began to peak out, and Hall and Reese moved down the hall, greeting the people they met and giving firm assurance that they would all be returned to Earth, as well as asking questions to determine identities and figure out who was missing. Part of the reason that Hall and Reese had been chosen for this rescue was that they had memorized the list of the missing, and they quickly assessed who was and wasn’t present.

  The furry creature stood at the end of the hall. It had also been freed when all the doors had been opened, and it had stepped out of its room, but now it stood back and simply observed the proceedings. The only thing that made it look like more than a large stuffed animal were the eyes – they were small and beady, but glowing green pupils shifted at the center, moving quickly, watching everything around it. Polypt watched it with curiosity, but did not seem to think it was harmful. “Just another victim of the Bastards,” she said when Jennifer asked.

 The noise level of so many people talking was worrying Jennifer. “How close are we to the nearest three vehicles?” she asked Polypt, figuring they would need at least that many to cart this number of people back to Earth. She hoped that the distraction team had carried all the activity far from them – they were going to have a hard time getting this many people out safely as it was.

  “Not far,” Polypt began giving directions, but Jennifer was immediately distracted by something. Her daughter’s voice. She moved close to the nearest cell, peaking in to see that an image of the Stream was playing near the ceiling. She could see her daughter staring back into the screen, staring directly into whatever device was recording her. “I’m ready,” Cassandra said. “Take me back.”

 “Cassandra…” Jennifer whispered quietly as the Stream stopped.

47. Interlude

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

Jennifer languished in the warm water of the gym’s shower, allowing it to wash over her. It was relaxing to simply exist, without thinking or obsessing over everything she didn’t know. Her workout had been enjoyable – she was now spending a little over two hours at the gym each night. She felt stronger than she had in years, especially for a woman her age.

As she stepped out of the shower, she could hear her phone vibrating in her gym bag. She forced herself to have patience, drying herself and dressing before looking at the device. Several missed calls and text messages, all from her team. For a moment, it brought her immediately back to that first day – when she had stepped out of her morning shower and found so many missed messages and calls about Cassandra’s flight. The similarity of the situation sent a shiver down her spine. She pulled up a website immediately, checking to see the most recent videos from the Stream.

She watched the battle with the fire giant closely, awed at the power on display. Cassandra seemed to focus mostly on a supporting role, healing fallen companions. Cassandra had rarely liked taking the lead on things, even as a child. She watched the battle end suddenly with the young girl from their world falling into a trance and communing with the giant, which she identified afterward as the fire god. And then the truly shocking moment – Lexie, looking directly into whatever was capturing the video feed, saying, “What the fuck is that?” She pointed, acknowledging for the first time that there was something there- something physically present where they were.

She had seen what was recording them.

The office was in turmoil over the events, but Jennifer didn’t call a meeting immediately, much to their shock. “It’s the middle of the night,” she told the staff that anxiously greeted her as she returned to the office. “And even if it is a new development, there’s still nothing we can do but watch. Let the others sleep for now, and we’ll discuss this at the morning meeting.”

Despite that, Terry arrived minutes later, carrying two mugs of coffee. He set one on the desk for Jennifer – black and sweet, just the way she liked it. Leaning against the wall, he rubbed a hand through his short hair. Jennifer took a sip of the coffee he had brought her, and raised an eyebrow at him. “Did you just wake up?”

“Yeah,” he said. It seemed he was about to say more, but then he shook his head and took a long pull from his own cup. “I’m surprised you’re not treating this as more of an emergency. I thought you’d want all hands on deck.” She smirked at him and he groaned and took a very long drink from his own cup, nearly emptying it. “I could be sleeping.”

She traced the rim of her mug with a fingertip, glancing at the Stream on her desktop monitor. “I think I’m just happy that there is something that is physically there and recording. Or at least confirmation of it.” She paused for a moment and added. “But even with that confirmation, I already know we won’t be able to do anything.” Terry frowned but said nothing. With a sigh, Jennifer sat back and took a sip of her coffee again. “I don’t think we’ll be the ones to figure this out. We’re going to need luck, or a miracle, or an intervention.”

She had been right in her assessment, and the team didn’t make headway at all. All they could do was watch. There was a lot of excitement about the Stream when those that were being watched attempted to mess with the recording devices. “Scry balls,” Vincent called them one day.

“Scry balls?” Jennifer asked. She had seen them called the same thing on the internet, but wasn’t sure where the term came from.

Vincent nodded. “In the game Dungeons and Dragons, there is a spell called Scry that allows you to spy on someone from a distance. It’s kind of like that…” Jennifer shrugged. It was as good a name as any for the mysterious objects.

When Cassandra caused the cave in, Jennifer found herself screaming at the monitor in frustration at her daughter’s stupidity. Her yelling was so loud that poor Larry jumped up from his sleep instantly, growling, his head swiveling to look for danger. Startled at the uncharacteristically aggressive sound coming from the old dog, Jennifer immediately made soothing noises, and seeing no immediate danger, he hesitantly wagged his tail and whined. She sat down next to him, petting him, hardly able to watch the events unfolding in the Stream.

When the door to her office burst open, she didn’t look up immediately. She flushed, wondering if she had really screamed that loudly, wondering what she had been yelling. Or if maybe someone had come with news about what was happening in the Stream, something she had missed in those critical moments following the cave in… she felt something in her chest clench in panic for a moment as she wondered if Cassandra had died. “Ma’am?” a voice said hesitantly from the doorway.

She looked up to see Vincent, his eyes wide, his face pale. It did not calm her at all. “What is it?” she asked, her voice deceptively steady.

“There’s a…” Vincent paused. His mouth worked for a moment, as though he were confused about what to say next. Finally, he settled on, “We have a visitor.”

Jennifer frowned. “A visitor?” she asked, confused. “Who is it?”

“It’s best if you come see for yourself.” Jennifer stood and followed Vincent down the hall. They made their way to the entrance of the building. Before she fully stepped out of the hall, she could spot a few members of her team, standing tensely with their guns drawn. She wondered what kind of visitor merited this reaction, and her head swiveled to see what they were staring at and…

She blinked, and took a half step back. Her hand reached absently for a gun she never wore anymore, and she had to stop herself and force her fingers to clench into a fist.

It wasn’t human.

As Jennifer stepped into sight, it seemed to unfold, or perhaps to stand straighter, raising itself to its full height – easily three or four feet taller than the average man. All the guns aimed at it lifted, trained on its head. It lifted four arms into the air, palms out.

Something of the appearance reminded Jennifer of an insect like a praying mantis – it was long and lithe and had too many limbs. The arms it lifted didn’t seem to be much differentiated from the legs it stood on – spindly limbs at the end of which were small, long fingered hands. The skin was brownish, with bright yellowish green spots. It wore clothes, which almost seemed so ludicrous that Jennifer could have laughed. It didn’t have the large grabbing legs of a mantis, but the head had a similar triangular shape and large, glittering black eyes.

Those eyes focused on her as it rose up. “I wish to help,” it said, it’s voice a high pitched trill. It spoke perfect English, with a strange and punctuated accent, but English none the less.

“Help with what?” Jennifer asked, stepping forward and gesturing for her team to lower their weapons.

“Help your captured people. Help your planet,” the creature said.

Jennifer paused. After a hesitant moment, she gestured for the creature to follow. She didn’t want to lead it to her office and give poor Larry a heart attack, so she took the creature to the employee break room that they had set up. The break room was large and spacious and had plenty of chairs and tables, and her team could also join and listen, and keep their weapons ready if needed. As she led the way, she pulled Vincent close and whispered for him to get everyone up and at the office. She gestured for the individuals that had their weapons still at the ready to move into the break room first. Even without direct orders, they took positions at the corners of the room to fully cover every angle.

Jennifer stepped in and sat down at one of the tables close to the center of the room. She gestured for the creature to join her and rested her linked hands on the table in front of her.

The creature stepped in and paused for a moment, staring at the chair that sat across from Jennifer. Obviously feeling that it would not be comfortable sitting in such a thing, it gently pushed the chair out of the way and settled onto its thorax on the floor, lowering itself into a crouch that brought it comfortably to eye level with Jennifer.

“What… who are you?” Jennifer asked at last.

The creature’s head swiveled gently as it took in its situation before focusing its eyes on Jennifer. “I am here to help,” it said again.

“Then explain yourself, and explain quickly.”

“I am from another planet.” Someone muttered “No shit” under their breath, but neither Jennifer nor the alien acknowledged it. “My world was subjected to something very similar as what your world is going through now. What you call the Stream.”

Jennifer frowned, not understanding fully. “What do you mean?”

“It is a long story.” Jennifer could see that more of her team were gathering outside the room – some entered, and some lingered at the door or out in the hall. Those that stayed outside took turns peaking in, wide eyed in shock at their first sight of an alien visitor. She nodded to the creature to begin. “I will start by saying that I did not come here of my own will. The aliens that brought me here are the ones that are responsible for recording your people, and they hold several humans on their craft as we speak. I managed to escape to the surface of your world, in the hopes that I could help you to divert the crisis that fell upon my people.”

“They’re keeping humans?” Jennifer frowned. “The people from Flight 5071. Where are they keeping them?”

The alien gestured toward the ceiling vaguely, and Jennifer understood it to mean very high above.

“But our people have been on the alert for an… extra-terrestrial ship. It was one of the possible theories that many had about the source of the Stream. How has no one spotted this craft?”

“They have advanced technology… and some degree of magical prowess.”

Jennifer started to open her mouth to protest at the term “magic” being thrown in so casually, but paused. Her own daughter was being recorded using magic on a nearly daily basis now. She had been pulled into another world by a means that was certainly magical. If these aliens were here and recording and sending that record to be watched… Was it so strange to think that they could use magic too? It hurt her head to think about it. “Magic,” she said finally, tersely. She thought about the scry balls and their invisibility. Perhaps that was how they kept their ship out of sight, wherever it was. “You said they came to your world too? They aren’t the same as you?”

The alien shook its head. “No.”

“And what crisis did they cause your people, exactly?”

For a moment, the alien’s head tilted down slightly – from the shift of its features, Jennifer felt distinctly that it was frowning. “They destroyed my planet.”

Jennifer grimaced, not liking the answer. “Tell me what happened.”

The closest approximation that Jennifer could make to the alien’s name when it introduced itself was Polypt. Very similar to the Graces, Polypt had been pulled into another realm. However, magic was a known element on Polypt’s planet, and being pulled into this realm wasn’t completely unheard of to them – it was part of an ancient pact made between those worlds, and it was considered a great honor. Those who were Chosen on Polypt’s planet were summoned to perform a great service. In fact, many of Polypt’s people trained their entire lives, hoping to be worthy of being Chosen.

But it was Polypt who was Chosen, somehow. Despite being a normal individual that had never trained for the task, Polypt had found herself in this other realm. It had struck her as initially strange – something had clearly gone wrong with the summoning. But Polypt had made the best of the situation and had decided to devote herself to the duty. Unbeknownst to her, her entire journey was broadcast for her entire planet to see.

As a chosen Priestess, Polypt’s duty was to clear the other world of something she described only as an “encroaching dark.” She made friends that she traveled with, she focused on strengthening her magical abilities, and she helped to fight back the encroaching dark. And just as she had come close to finally saving the world … she was approached by the aliens responsible for the broadcast, responsible for interfering with the summoning and sending her.

They gave her a choice: she could stay and save the world she had settled into, but her home world would be destroyed. Or she could return to save her home – and know that she left the other world to its doom. She had anguished over it, but knew that she couldn’t allow her home to be destroyed, so she had chosen to return. The aliens had the ability to bring her back. She had left that other world that her people had made a pact with so long ago, she had left her friends to fight their own battle, to possibly die.

And despite her choice, the aliens had destroyed her home anyway.

“The magic required to pull an individual spatially from one location to another further location is very powerful. It leaves a distinct signature that they can track, and usually exists in a predictable pattern. From what I have been able to learn, they use that to track down species that have a bountiful enough planet for them to harvest resources from. They interfere with the transference spell, so that they can bring the individual back to the point of origin. They spend the time studying the planet, its resources and technology, in order to ensure a smoother acquisition. I suspect the broadcasts and the world’s reaction to it are also a source of entertainment for them,” Polypt said, her tone turning bitter as she spoke.

Jennifer frowned. “What are they called? Do they have a name for their species.”

Polypt gave a strangely familiar gesture – a shrug. “I never learned. I just called them Bastards.”

“I see.” Jennifer frowned. She glanced around the room, and the faces that surrounded her – some disbelieving, some pale with terror, some determinedly set and angry. “So they watch our people like a television program, and then after presenting the victims with a moral dilemma for their own entertainment, they destroy the world and harvest it for resources. And then they move on to the next place where they can interfere?”

“Yes,” Polypt said simply.

Jennifer leaned back, staring hard at Polypt for a time. “When you escaped to the surface… was it on a ship or a craft that could take you back to theirs?”

“Yes. It was not very big, but I can take perhaps a small handful of individuals with me. If they are not expecting me to return, we might able to infiltrate and destroy their ship.”

“No. We need to infiltrate and save the people of Flight 5071. And then we can destroy the ship.” Polypt looked hesitant at that, but Jennifer placed a hand on the table in front of her. “That is non-negotiable. We’re saving our people first.”

Polypt nodded. “I understand. But I will remind you, that it is our love and devotion to our own that they enjoy using against us most. It was how I destroyed my own world… and perhaps another, that I will never see again.”

Jennifer nodded. She stood, and left Polypt under the guard of several members of her team while gesturing for the others to join her in the meeting room. She knew they were in for a long discussion on what do and who would go, but she also already knew that she was going to go herself. No one was going to talk her out of that.