-Increase the strength of the defence shields around the ship. Keep the entire perimeter safe. - Zorack's voice gave orders on the bridge urgently. - Max, you take control of the ship. I will help humans ...
Once again the Spartackus was in the skies and maintained the necessary height to ensure that the group of survivors who fled the surface of the planet could escape the laserjets that were fired.
-I don't believe you're really going to do that. Scarllet stopped the ex-lover's livid arm. - Will you change the past, change space-time? Do you like this girl so much? That will put you to death when we get back, Zorack. It will condemn us all. The guidelines of the Confederation ...
Max and Bash looked at each other without speaking and an angry science officer stood up leaving the ship's bridge grumbling. Even so, Sereide's eyes were steady and transmitted securely. Zorack took a deep breath.
-Objection noted in the logbook, Lieutenant. he replied dryly. - I won't let all these people die if I can ...
-Do you love Angel so much? - The question at close range made Zorack irritate.
He was the captain and he didn't have to explain his personal life to anyone. He knew perhaps better than anyone the consequences of his decision. And it didn't matter. Certainty sprang with an incredible conviction that it was not the end. Alvorada might be far from the quadrant, but another Confederacy ship was also capable of resisting the K'Aldriants' attack.
-Is that what bothers you? - he returned the question without patience.
-Not even for Klaus you took such a risk and ...
Zorack nodded with furious features. It was never pleasant to remember old mistakes.
-Fairly. I didn't do it before. And Klaus died. I won't make the same mistake this time that ...
Scarllet shook her head, unable to believe what was hearing.
"Do you think it's your fault that Klaus died?" This is absurd, Zorack. - Scarllet looked for inspiration to convince Zorack of this. - Come on, Max. Tell Zorack ... - she continued and looked at Max with a groan acknowledging defeat.
-I take control of the ship, Captain. - the first officer spoke, clearing his throat. Perhaps it was the end of his fragile relationship with Scarllet, but lives depended on the ship's intervention to equate forces. Still, he tried to smile in a veiled apology. - Honey, under the present circumstances ...
Scarllet shook her livid head. The ship still needs parts and repairs that prevented them from returning home. Anger guided his actions.
-You know that your thoughtless decision can leave us stuck here and with no chance of returning home, Captain.
-Because we are taking a risk, Lieutenant.
-----
A loud, metallic noise echoed ominously ... making Angel plug his ears as he struggled to catch his breath. Cold sweat covered my forehead when I leaned precariously against the door. And it wasn't just weakness. How long did I not eat?
It remained with its eyes fixed on me causing pure horror.
Ah, Zorack! All, she wanted most was to throw myself in his arms.
This was not human.
the skin was beginning to show a totally different fabric. The malaise was further accentuated. It was firm and developed in parts. Worse, they looked like bone plates like lizards! Scales that way considerably reduced the radiation that penetrated deeply into a body. The air was short. Some species such as snakes and lizards used to moult. It usually started with the anterior region of the head.
Were they scales that were golden and overlapped like a breastplate? Located under the scales, areas of thin skin remained between the scales and shields, which would provide flexibility, which allowed, for example, a snake to swallow something up to 6 times its size.
" Whatever that was- Ah, God! Was it a clone of me? - it was not human at all. There was another DNA present. What genetic information did hit bring? What was the inherited genetic material other than human? An alien?"
- ETs with two meters, scales, tails and wings? she murmured in a trance. - My goodness! What I am?
Because that was anything but a laboratory that humans would use. The instruments on the bench had the most varied sizes and shapes, both invasive and piercing.
"Is it fear that you feel?"
Fear. She was paralyzed with fear. The voice in her head was as curious as was horrified. Now had started to hear voices? Was that it? Did that thing try or communicate?
-Who's there? - she said scared. - You can't keep me here against my will. I am an American citizen. This is against the law!
Laws ?! Her words showed no conviction about it. As if little green men were going to obey human laws! And they weren't even green ...
"You are not being held here. You can leave if it's your wish ..."
Get out ?! " swallowed. It was clear that wanted to get out of there. The terrible certainty that the thing was trying to communicate with me made my skin crawl. might as well start whining as Spike would do in that situation. In no way did she want a body covered with scales. Insane laughter threatened to well up in the back of his throat. Zorack! Her mind screamed that name as if it could make him know exactly where she was.
Unfortunate extraterrestrial! There was one when you needed to be the hero of the damn day?
"There, Zorack ... I ... I need ... Please! Where are you?"
The thought of love left her so livid and numb that her body was beginning to slide to the floor, her shoulders sliding against the cold metal despite her attempt to rise.
"I'm fine. Very well. I'll probably create scales, a tailor I don't know what else. A monster. It doesn't happen every day. Who says I'm not well?"
"Is the edriano you are looking for?"
looked up at the creature. Very slowly the memories started to return in a nightmare scenario. Zorack ... God have mercy on me. This was not Zorack.
It looked like Zorack on the outside. Ah, it seemed. With more goosebumps, remembered the cold, hard skin like a breastplate. Had kissed that back?
-A-That was not Zorack! her voice shook.
It was a form of carbon and nitrogen. Just like you met.
-It wasn't ... it was human! - I was horrified, closing my eyes.
They were scales that my fingers touched interspersed with a very thin and cold skin. They had no hot blood in their veins. The body looked like an impenetrable fortress of steel, solid and strong. I touched my arms without looking at the bruises that would be there and my fingers were hesitant for the neck. The strength of it was so great ... It fed on fluids and meat. They were carnivores. They sucked biological fluids. Blood and cerebrospinal fluid. I was on the verge of having a hysterics. It had fed on me. And had done much more to my growing horror.
"Had I let that touch me? "
Nausea invaded her.
"We are a natural evolution. Greater adaptability and resistance. Methane-free oxygen cells. Life can exist beyond the limits of water-based chemistry that you know."
She shook her head in a daze, refusing the memories. Nothing like that had happened. It was just a horrible nightmare. It was not possible. Water was fundamental to existence. It was an unquestionable truth.
-What you are? What you are? Are they so evolved that they need hosts? Is that what you call evolution? - shouted out of my head.
There was no answer. That didn't speak. The buzzing came to my mind and the message was decoded. Were they telepaths? could capture with absolute certainty the disbelief that my clone experienced. And there was one more presence there that made me shiver.
It was, wasn't it? Ravenack?
"I need to get out of here! Have I gone mad! This is not real. It is not! This was not real, for God's sake!"
For the first time, Zorack's image seemed to fade. won't be able to explain it to him. The nails pierced her palm in shock. Some small insects sucked on the juice of plants, making asexual clones of themselves when food was plentiful. Organisms would choose the sex and not asexuality when threatened by parasites, probably because sexual reproduction would give them genetic weapons to be used in the evolutionary race against their parasitic enemies. The mixture of genomes.
tensed with disgust. The dark oil that passed through her body ... It only served to make a human excited so that could have sex with an alien. The contact seemed to give electric shocks.
"You can leave here if it is your wish. There are still living forms of carbon and nitrogen on this planet."
There is still? She bit the lip anxiously. Clothes! needed any clothes she could wear. The unreality was only accentuated by the new squeaky metallic sound. The door opened. Without pausing to reflect, jumped up and ran to the bench looking for any object that would serve as a defence weapon.
What did she do? What if found someone there? Or some strange way? crossed the empty, lighted, freezing corridors. It was just like Small Mountain. Everything was deserted and the silence was frightening.
"An outfit. Any outfit! Don't these things wear clothes, my God?"
"We are more evolved, my child. Our skin offers all the protection we need."
"I could scream. Evolved?!"
They ... they had inverted organs like some insects. Hysteria threatened to return. Females should be equipped with penis-like genitalia. They penetrated the male and remained together for a few hours, so there was a transfer of sperm to the female and nutrients. I was really going to scream!
-Get out of my head, bastard. And you are not? Ravenack?
It was still on my mind, an inexplicable connection. The unusual role reversal was driven by the poor resource environment in which they lived, the female also used mating to feed. she supported herself trembling heavily as held the arms against the wall throwing up, refusing to give in to panic.
The determination of the sex of those creatures happened as reptiles. Temperature acted as a determinant to distinguish the chromosome system from their sex. The sex determination was subject to change according to the temperature variation. If it was tall, she acted as an estrogen inhibitor that reduced the number of female offspring. It induced those creatures, even if they were females, to develop as males. It was a simple sexual inversion.
-Stop! Get out of my mind! - she shouted again with all my strength.
Doors were open through the narrow corridor. continued to run on instinct. She didn't even want to know how she knew that in the end there would be warm clothes to wrap her trembling body. The humans brought there no longer wore clothes or would need them for the experiments.
started laughing without being able to stop. And it was nothing funny. Her hands were shaking.
"It's going to be okay! Keep the damn calm. You can certainly keep your sanity and lucidity. Just try to find a way out. Any way out!"
Laughter was finally abandoned by tears. the bleary eyes looked around.
"It touched me! It touched me and what else? God! Please !!! What happened more?"
It was just the unfortunate frightening silence! Everything about that place caused goosebumps. automatically put on a knit shirt, rummaging through the heaped pieces for pants and shoes. Were so many clothes piled up? How many people had been brought there? And where were they, mercy? Carnivores were predators and hunted their prey. Would they need to hunt and feed so often to maintain energy levels?
"More than you could imagine and less than we would like or expect. The symbiosis process requires resistant hosts for cell mutation and alteration."
She knew that too. He knew that few would inevitably survive. The liquid that flowed through their bodies was intoxicating and deadly most of the time. What terrified her most was imagining their appearances. How would they be?
The treacherous mind was able to create the most bizarre and frightening forms of what I had seen in films. They would be big, monstrous, ugly ... The skin was hard and practically impenetrable with terrible and big red eyes that would reach the side of the face, expanding the field of vision. They also captured thermal variations in an environment. And movements and vibrations.
"I'm scared! Please ... just a little help. I need to get out of here!"
-Enough! I'll be back when the time comes. Return now to yours!
The tired body stiffened again. Again the blinding stream of light blinded her eyes. still had the vague notion that floated in the air. The perception of paralyzing cold stifled the air in the lungs. The floor disappeared.
fell in free fall without being able to grab and my feet hit something hard. The feeling of weakness was doubled. The body refused to obey any will of mine, the muscles protesting and contracting in painful spasms.
She falls awkwardly on the floor and breathless. And it didn't matter where she was at all.
There were screams! Men and women around her were running, some dragging teenagers and others falling in devastating urgency.
They were people like her after all. Relief washed over her. Were they people and ran away scared? But what did they flee from, God?
-We will! Stand up! someone yelled in her ears, pulling the arm roughly, forcing her to get up.
The ground rattled menacingly. Something was emerging from the depths of the earth.
-I ... - I tried to protest.
-Run! - the man ordered apprehensively. - I don't know who they are, but I prefer to take the risk than to serve as food for these creatures.
-What?
She did not reply.
In heaven, the most unexpected and blessed vision appeared before her eyes. It was Spartackus. Bluish beams of energy came out of the ship, the metallic structure shining against the rays of the rising sun.
Zorack.
He was right there on the bridge, protecting people who ran in fear. He even saw the high aluminium fences and the warnings so that visitors did not exceed the perimeter limits. Even so, men and women ran, oblivious to their vehicles, their horns echoing in the midst of shouting and crying, after the spaceship's weapons had opened the way for them to escape.
It was a military base. The most unexpected possible refuge for survivors of a spreading pandemic, preceding the arrival of the invader. The Earth had been invaded by extraterrestrials.
It was the military base. Base 51. The signs and notices left no doubt. It represented perhaps the last refuge to protect the human race from extinction.
His eyes were heavy. Without complaining, was swept away by the furious human mass.
In the darkening sky, strange ships and stranger shapes still dominated our atmosphere in a hostile and threatening way. The world where she was born, or where grew up, perished before the invader bowing down like a wounded and slaughtered prey.
Was it the end of humanity on planet Earth? The end of the guinea pigs that aliens created in that colony for hybridization experiments? In our world lived creatures that had become legends and yet were very real and hunted us like animals. They weren't werewolves or vampires as the older ones called it.
It was worse. They were mutations that science and the social and scientific organism of a strange and alien government for us were vomiting because they could not be controlled or dominated. even saw one of them move forward trying to overcome the protective siege that surrounded them, bloodshot eyes. The sharp, deadly claws producing electrical discharges as they struggled to tear the protective shield impossibly. The prey salivates before the food, and that food was us.
-I ... I can't ... - tried to speak and without strength to react.
It was useless to try to move my body. The pain returned more sharply than before, preventing me from being able to breathe as needed to. There was insufficient air in the lungs. It felt like a knife inside the entire body, tearing and serrating inside. The taste of blood came to her mouth with the effort and screamed when was rushed up urgently. The protective shield field was advancing. If didn't get out of there would soon be the food for those hungry creatures that now dominated the falling night and hunted.
-Try to hold on just a little longer ... just a little longer ...
She didn't get to answer. It didn't make a difference anymore. The lungs burned and burned. was sure she was suffocating while death lurking waited patiently for me. closed the eyes, defeated with resignation.
Perhaps death was not so bad. It was the end of a journey. For some of us who suffered in beds or because of terrible illnesses, it was the deserved rest. Perhaps there was a God who would welcome us. needed to believe that it wasn't even the end.
Angel felt hands touching me before being lifted carefully by strong arms ...
-I carry you ... Don't be afraid ...baby.