Nathan Hystad - The Survivors - Books 1-3

“I hope they ask questions before shooting,” Mary said, holding her rifle.

“They did last time.”

We were in a large clearing, just past the tree line separating the village from the forest and swamps. A few ships were nearby, quietly sitting on the ground. I recognized one of them as the insectoid ship we’d seen last time. Another wasn’t familiar.

A Deltra sentry could be seen a hundred yards away, walking the other direction. Worried they might think we were sneaking in, I stuck my pinky and thumb into my mouth and whistled sharply. That got his attention. He spun around, gun raised, and I was impressed at his reaction time. I suspected the sentries didn’t have much action here, unless those smooth-faced bears were a problem in town.

He said something in Deltran and I threw my hands in the air. Mary lowered her rifle and did the same.

“This better work,” she whispered.

“Who goes there?” my translator said in my ear.

“Dean Parker and Mary Lafontaine,” I said loudly. He was only thirty yards away now, and I saw his expression change.

“Keep them up,” he said, gun still raised as he approached us. “How did you get here?”

Mary nodded toward the trees. “Hover scooter,” she said, and he looked confused, the translation likely not clear.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“We’re here to see Kareem. It’s urgent.” I was getting tired of holding my arms up, and I started to lower them. When he didn’t object, I let them drop to my sides.

“Come with me,” he said, letting us walk in front of him. He didn’t ask to take our weapons, but when I glanced back at him, his grip on his gun looked tight, and he eyed me with suspicion.

We neared the same building Kareem had been in before. When we got to the door, the sentry knocked and was let in. Another guard came out, watching us as the first sentry disappeared into the big structure.

“Nice morning,” I said to the newcomer, getting a grunt in return. “Not a big talker? Sorry for waking you guys up. We didn’t have a choice.” I swear the guy cut me a smile, and if I wasn’t mistaken, that was the first smile I’d seen from their race. It was nice to see the commonality.

“You’re Dean, right?” he asked, his voice quiet.

“My reputation precedes me.”

“Terrance and Leslie have been waiting for their friends.”

Guilt washed over me. Just a second ago, I’d been making jokes; meanwhile, the hybrids were probably dying in the Russian prison on Earth.

“I’m sorry. I failed them,” I said somberly. Mary set her hand on my forearm.

“They won’t be happy. I hope you have better news for them and Kareem,” the pale hairless guard said, his smile wiped away.

The door swung open, the first sentry waving us inside. “He’ll see you now.”

We followed them into the large space we’d first been in when Mae had escaped in Leslie’s ship. They took us farther, through a doorway at the far end of the room. It smelled sterile in there, reminding me of a hospital. I’d spent enough time in one of those with Janine to recall it vividly.

The door opened into a hallway. Wooden floors led us to a series of rooms; some doors were ajar, with Deltra and other races milling around, getting an early start to their days. No one stopped us, but all of them stared curiously as we passed their bedrooms. I wanted to stop and look at the different aliens, to talk to them and learn about their people. There would be time for that eventually. Other things were more pressing now.

“In here,” the first guard said, ushering us through the doors. The room was dimly lit but was a good size, with a bed on the side. Machines beeped softly, and I wondered why they’d brought us there. Then I saw the bed wasn’t empty. Kareem was in it. His skin was even paler, if that was possible, and as I walked to the edge of the bed, I knew something was wrong.

“Kareem?” I asked.

His eyes opened, and he looked from Mary to me. “We meet again. I wasn’t expecting this. Have a seat.”

The guards slid a couple chairs over, and the lights in the room brightened by a few watts.

“Are you okay?” Mary asked the sickly-looking Deltra leader. I could just make out his tattoos peeking out from under the thick blankets.

“No. I’m dying.”

“I’m sorry.” I couldn’t think of anything else to say to his calm statement.

“Tell me why you’re here,” he said.

Where did I start? “We need your help. We think the Bhlat have invaded our planet.”

“You think they have? What does that mean?”

“Many of us have moved on to a new planet, at Proxima. But our communications with Earth take two months to relay, and our leader went back when the messages ceased to come.” I explained to him what had happened after we’d last met. How we thought Mae had died crashing into an asteroid, and how we found the device he’d described to us. He seemed pleased it still existed but was surprised the Bhlat knew of it and were waiting there.

Mary took over and talked about us chasing Mae to the Bhlat outpost. She skipped over the intimate details of who Mae was to me and cut the murderous part I had in killing all of their innocents on the base.

Kareem listened, asking few questions. When the tale was over, he asked one simple but important question. “How did you get here? We had no signs of a ship arriving, or they would have told me.”

“The Shandra .” I used the Shimmalian word for the portal to see if this had any meaning to him. His otherwise calm demeanor changed drastically. One of the electronic monitors beeped loudly, causing a small Deltra to enter the room, pushing us out of the way. Kareem shooed him away with a flick of his wrist. “I’m fine,” he said in Deltran before switching back to English. “Where did you hear that word?”

“From Sarlun, the Gatekeeper of the Shandra on Shimmal.” I didn’t flinch. This seemed to flummox him even more.

“Then it’s out.” He sank back in the pillow, almost disappearing into the bed.

“Is that such a bad thing?” Mary asked.

“We spent a lot of hard work to isolate the portals. We blocked off all that we could. The Theos were short-sighted creating these back-door accesses into so many worlds. It was like giving the Kremlons a key to the barn,” Kareem said, his reference not hitting home, but I imagined it was something like giving a fox a key to the hen house.

“We need the portal to the Bhlat homeworld.” I leaned forward as I spoke. I said the words just loud enough for Kareem to hear them.

“Preposterous!” he yelled, sending his frail body into a coughing fit. When it finished, he wiped his thin lips with a slender arm. “What would that accomplish?”

I told him our plan, and he didn’t interrupt once. A few times, he looked like he would interject, but each time he changed his mind, and sat back. When it was over, he looked at Mary. “You agree with this plan?” he asked her.

She nodded, but I noticed a hesitation to it. “What choice do we have?”

“There’s always a choice. There’s always…” He coughed a few more times. “A choice.”

“I think it’s our best bet. Unless we can rally enough support from your allies out there.” Magnus, Mary, and I had discussed this, but ultimately, we didn’t have the contacts or time to attempt such an endeavor.

“Their portal was blocked off centuries ago. The Theos Collective fought us on the decision, but the long-running religion ended up dissipating as the years went on, and eventually, they forgot about it, just like everyone else. Now there are only a handful of races that even know of their existence. Your friend Sarlun is one of the last remaining Gatekeepers in the universe.”