"Bravo. You seeing this?" The excited voice of lieutenant Markwell whispered through the earpiece in Commander Haley's helmet. "Doesn't look biological. Confirm Bravo."
Making sure to expose as little of himself as possible, Haley crawled through the contrapuntal shadows that conceiled him from the intense moonlight and peered over a moss encrusted log down into the lush gully below. Adjusting the position of his rifle tighter to his shoulder he quickly sighted the enigmatic pulsing orb of light as it lurked amongst an outcropping of softly glowing fan shaped plants.
"Affirmative. We see it too. Bravo's been guns on since it came out of the tree line. Were trying to get a reading on it. Sure is strange looking." He replied as he glanced around and looked at the rest of his Bravo Unit.
They too were spread prone almost perfectly blended in amongst the densly overgrown stone outcropping that protruded above the alien jungle. Motionless on their perch they overwatched Alpha Squad as they methodically moved forward along the softly burbling shores of the tributary below. The team had initially been stealthily trailing what looked to be a seven foot tall bipedal salamander that had unwittingly entered their camp 45 minutes ago when this new interloper appeared.
The amphibian had curiously inspected the scientific equipment placed out earlier in the day by the scientific away team and was oblivious to the fact that it had passed within a metre of one of Alpha squad's cloaked and heavily armed Sargents. Nor was it aware that it was being followed for the last half hour only 100 metres behind by the experienced unit of men.
Under different circumstances the Marines would have let the creature wander off but this animal was wearing clothes and carried rudimentary technology. Something no one had seen before in the short 30 years mankind had been fruitlessly exploring our local cluster of star systems. The greatest finding only being semi sentient algae and lichen like sludge discovered to be crawling around desert on Ross 128b. Then again this wasn't some nearby star system they were in. This little Eden of a planet was located 89 light-years from the nearest outpost.
"Thing almost looks like a smaller version of one of our C3 nodes." Markwells voice crackled into his helmet again. "You think something else is out there bouncing a signal off it?"
"Possible. We dont know anything about this place. Might even be his for all we know." Haley whispered into his mic referring to the amphibian.
"I doubt it with the way the things acting." Maxwell responded skeptically. "Sure looks like its stalking our friend out there."
The sinister behaving orb of muted violet light cautiously glided its way through the forest, using the limbs and foliage to skillfully conceal its self. So far whatever it was hadn't detected Alphas men either, but it was obvious by the way it bobbed behind bushes and waited behind tree branches that it was making an intentional effort to be sneaky and it was definitely interested in trailing the unknown creature too. For whatever reason.
Haley' gestured towards his tech specialist who shrugged back pointing to a small directional antenna cradled in his hands and shook his head slowly indicating the device said no.
Nodding his understanding, Haley clicked on his mic again. "Confirmed Alpha. That is not biological. Its got nonlinear optical properties. Probably a probe of some sort. Starswift Command advises do not make contact or even attempt active scanning." He reported.
"Roger" Alpha acknowledged. "What's the Lucien say?" He added, referring to their own Marine starship orbiting high above the planet.
"They say, the eggheads on the Starswift are calling the shots. The Centaurus sector expedition is their mission after all." Haley grumbled wiping a bit of condensation from the scopes lense and working the focusing ring slightly.
From Haley's vantage he could see the spectre pause briefly as if it sensed something, flash softly and then continue on moving from tree to tree continuing it's persuit of the creature. Although it gave off a milky violet glow he noticed it lit up nothing around it or casted any shadows.
"As a precaution in case it's connected to those anomalous contacts the fleets been detecting since we got here, the guys in Charlie are setting up a fallback by the science station for your egress in the event this goes south and it engages." Haley added, watching the creature as it picked up pace and determinedly moved through a cluster of tall leafy plants that grew beside the rocky stream.
Located in the Centaurus constellation, Haumea, or HD 64550 as it was known to the science types, was an extremely rare Earth like planet sixth from a G2-V class star in the newly discovered Titama system. Technically, the highly speculated star system was catalogued as CD-44-8505 back when it was first confirmed to have 2 planets located perfectly in the Goldilocks like habitable zone surrounding it's star. Quickly discovered to be a shallow water world by the scientific expeditionary starship Starswift, the planet had a speckling of equatorial volcanic islands that sheltered an abundance of life both in it's coral encrusted seas and jade coloured jungles.
Being slightly smaller than the Earth, the planets atmosphere slowly leaked into space like a faint wisp in the planets wake, only to be continually refreshed by a train of icy comets originating from a nebulous cloud of debris that were the reminants of a pair of gas giants that had collided in the outer system eons ago. Every evening the fiery shards of ice would streak across the sky as they rejuvenated Huamea's delicate planetary ecosystem.
Fog coming from the direction of the shore a kilometre ahead had begun to roll in through the lowland forest and obscured Alpha Squad in a murk that hung a few feet above the ground like a thick carpet of serpentine misty curls. "Don't have a direct line to the unknown... ...-ity....uh.. It's....Need eyes on." Markwell said. His transmission beginning to break up. Either the fog or the orb were interfering with their transmissions.
Haley scanned the area again. It took him a moment to find the orb but spotted it as it crept out from behind a grotto of fern like plants beside the stream. It gave off that peculiar soft flash or pulse again and then crossed over the water of the tributary and disappeared inside a patch of bioluminescent leafy palms. He noticed it subtly changed its hue to blend in better with the natural light of the odd glowing fronds. 'Clever' he thought to himself.
"Alpha we have you at 125 metres from the subject. Estimate 60 to the..uhhh... newcomer." Haley shifted his scope back over to the creature. It was swiftly moving in earnest towards a clearing in the forest in which a sphere of orange red fire floated just above the tree line. It was a plasma node the Starswift lurking nearby projected to function as a data and command uplink tranceiver . Currently it was coordinating the control signals of an LLD drone that was busy exploring the geological layers of a deep revene further inland that the scientists discovered hidden under the dense canopy earlier in the day.
" Damn! " Haley hissed. " Alpha you're not going to like this. Our friend is going strait for the plasma bloom."
Lt. Markwell exhaled sharply in frustration. "Shit! Copy. Moving up 20 metres. Anyway we can get the Starswift to shut it down? "
Haley signalled the Comm Officer laying next to him to reach out to the vessel and relayed Alphas request although he didnt think it would do any good. Since when did science types give a damn about what marines wanted.
While he waited for an answer he craned his neck and looked up through an opening in the forest canopy at the alien night sky. It really was spectacular. A nearby nebula with twin newly formed stars only a light year away pierced through the lacy multicoloured backdrop like a pair of electric blue eyes gazing down on him. A bright full silvery moon was beginning to set behind the foliage, accompanied by two smaller paler moons that each appeared to be half broken apart. Somewhere up there not far away just above the clouds was the Starswift. For a second he cought a glimpse of its silhouette, before the clouds engulfed its 200 metre hull again.
Haley felt a nudge next to him from his comm officer and received word from Command "Negative lieutenant. Opps can not shut down data relay. " He sighed explaining further. " The UAV needs the amplified downlink from the node or she'll crash. On board AI can't handle navigating the jungle and direct comms from the Starswift are having trouble penetrating the forest. Something about high metal content in the trees"
Alpha clicked his mic button three times signalling an acknowledgement. The squad had maneuvered much closer to the mysterious glowing ball now and couldn't risk a verbal response nor being lit up visually by using their personal tablets to type messages.
As the wraith like men slinked into their new positions the glowing orb stopped and pulsed again. This time more brightly. And then... It changed direction cautiously moving back towards the line of concealed marines.
Recognising the danger the men of Alpha were in, Bravo subtly shifted their bodies, getting tighter beads with their weapons on the orb and preparing to engage.
"Don't move Alpha. Steady." He spoke on behalf of Lieutenant Markwell to Alphas men over the comm channel.
The orb dropped lower, below the height of the surrounding plants, and moved in a direct line towards Alphas point man. A seasoned sargent named James Burnett. Like a professional he didnt move an inch as it approached. He knew both Youngman and Glendon, the men just behind him, had his back and were ready to blast the thing should anything happen. Not that any of them had a clue whether their weaponry would be effective on whatever this thing was.
"Don't come over here. Don't you come over here you son of a bitch." One of Alphas men broke protocol and murmured over the open channel.
Just then the orb sprung up into the air not more than ten feet from the team of point-men, turned a menacing deep red colour, and pulsed again.
"Easy. Keep. your. cool. men." Haley spoke deliberately calm over the radio and then switched frequencies to talk directly to Captain Hoyt of the Starswift above. "Notify the Lucien. Looks like shits about to go down on Alpha. "
The spectre like sphere edged a little closer to Burnett and paused only a metre away and hovered directly in front of him. With his cover obviously blown, Burnett stood up and faced the menacing ball. Angry swirls of violet and blue danced freneticly inside the red ball of light as it steadily throbbed in brightness. It appeared as if made from several concentric shells of luminous plasma. One inside another like the skin of an onion. The effect was slightly mesmerising.
Haley noticed the forest had suddenly gone still and dead quiet as the two parties simply stared at each other face to face for nearly a minute inspecting each other. Neither side flinching.
"Gunny bring up the FGL." Haley said to his Master Sargent. He heard the distinctive whir of the penning trap cartridge charge up inside the Field Portable Gamma Laser and then a light squeeze on his shoulder from the sargent letting him know the weapon was primed to fire. "Bravo. Guns hot on my signal."
Haley waited a few more seconds as the tension mounted and then breaking the silence an excited trill came from in the direction of where the amphibious creature had gone. The orb lit up brightly and raced off in the same direction of the sound leaving the men.
"Bravo whats happening!" Lieutenant Markwell shouted over the comm.
Haley peered in the direction of the creature and saw it kneeling in front of the Plasma Comm Relay on all fours its head bowed down as if prostrating in reverence.
Zachary Hoyt, captain of the Starswift pushed his way through a knot of senior officers that huddled in front of the main bridge display and gazed at the imagery flashing across it. A steady stream of data and comms traffic scrolled along the screens borders and in the center a strange creature was featured in a live stream recording. Ruddish brown with dark patches along its back it lowered its self to its knees and flailed its arms up toward the plasma relay.
"Automated drone data uplink package in thirty seconds! We need that creature moved away from the node immediately! It's too close!" A voice shouted across the bridge from the drone piloting station.
Hoyt knew just as well as anyone else that in argon rich atmospheres such as Huamea's the plasma tended to emit soft x-rays within a certain proximity whenever a particularly dense batch of data made its way through the uplink laser. They had no idea how the radiation would effect the creature standing only 15 metres from the transceiver.
"Recall the drone! Cancel the uplink transmission!" A panicked voice came from the bridge entry hatch behind them as Doctor Arrise, the head xenobiologist, came racing towards them.
Captain Hoyt snapped back. "We can't without crashing the drone. If we shut down the plasma bloom the-"
-"Contact!" A sensor officer shouted across the bridge. " The anomlous contact is back! Bearing mark 270 low! It's coming out of the jungle! Heading for our men!"
"Holy Shit!" Haley screamed as a black spherical void darker than the night itself rushed by low overhead past his squad of men towards the clearing ahead. A intense surge of wind rocked the trees in its wake. It collided with the glowing red comm node and in a bright flash both disappeared.
The forest erupted into a cocophany of screeching animals and a flock of terrified avian creatures scattered from the tree tops. Haley stood up and in the distance coming through the fog a second black sphere emerged and hovered over the clearing. Quick lances of light flitted out of it and into the jungle below towards Alpha squad. Somewhere in the distance a low boom echoed. The LLD drone had just crashed.
"Falling back to Charlie! Were under attack!" Maxwell panted over the radio as he and his squad sprinted down the stream bed. "We're evacuating. Get cover! The Lucien's opening up with her positron beam."
"Shit!" Haley exclaimed as he and his crew scrambled for cover. Even hunkered behind the rocks, he and his squad were about to be irradiated by gamma rays. He had only been this close to an antimatter annihilation once before on Epsilon Eridani Prime when a rogue commander sabotaged the Navy's expansion effort and had turned a positronic weapon against a colonial outpost there. Every one of his team had ended up in the hospital with radiation sickness, although they were kilometres from the explosion.
Haley had only enough time to see the black sphere rise up towards the clouds and the Lucien high above. A column of white light grew from the the sphere ascending momentarily into the heavens. The antimatter Haley recognized. And then everything went white.
Captain Hoyt paced back and forth in the congested briefing room. Assembled were the the entirety of the Starswift's senior officers and scientific staff. All were silent watching the display read out the list of casualties.
'The military contingent has been recovered and are in triage down in medlab. They're in a bad way, docs say at least two weeks induced coma until they can repair the radiation poisoning and damage. " Tane Taumata, the Executive Officer of the Starswift said solemnly.
"And the alien?" Hoyt asked quietly.
The XO tapped the console in front of him and the display changed to a holographic image of the surgical suite. A team of doctors surrounded the operating table, and laying limp across it was the unconscious body of the amphibian. Miraculously it had survived the blast.
"We can save it." Tane responded after a brief pause breaking the silence once more.
Hoyt massaged his forehead and sighed deeply. "What a mess. " He said finally. "36 men half dead and an alien aboard. I'm scrubbing the Centaurus mission. "
"Sir?" Tane questioned.
"I'm ordering the Starswift to engage it's Jump Drive as soon as we've cleared the system. Were returning to Earth. "
"And the Alien?" Doctor Arrise spoke up this time.
Captain Hoyt glanced across the room at the image of the alien again, grabbed the back of his neck, inhaled sharply and with a pensive look on his face shook his head. "He's coming with us."
Hello fellow Hive members. Hope this short SciFi story was enjoyable to read. This is my first time posting in The Ink Well community. Sorry if there are some grammatical or formatting errors. I wrote everything using a tablet and I have clumsy fingers to begin with.
The story is part of what will be an ongoing series pertaining to the adventures of the scientific exploratory starship Starswift. Taking place in the near future circa 2075 Earth has made its first fledgling steps out into the universe exploring nearby star systems. While the navy explores the outer reaches of local space and scientists tentatively establish meager outposts on distant planets, large corporations eagerly mine the nearest stars and our own solar system for resources. Humanity is finding the universe to be a lonely place...or is it?
If you would like to read an earlier post that gives a background and technical overview of the starship Starswift you can check out this link here. In it you will find another short story aboard the Starswift and even deck plans and technical schematics of the vessel.
Wishing everyone here in The Inkwell health and happy writings.
Header image provided by pixabay.com and modified by hidave
