Nathan Hystad - The Survivors - Books 1-3

Alien voices flowed down the halls toward us, a deep vibrating language different than our own. My translator spilled out what it could, constantly getting better as it learned more.

She comes alone. Talleidudne will be happy shiguedbggr is here. Time poloo answers.

They knew Mae was there.

We ducked into the science lab and waited as two hulking forms passed by, talking away, their voices muffled so my translator couldn’t pick them up.

“Keep going,” Slate said.

We approached the space where the group had emerged from a few minutes ago and entered an amazing room. Chairs lined the center of the space, and a glowing platform sat in the middle of the room. Either a stage or… a projector. My gut leapt as I realized this was a communication hall. They had probably been in there talking with a leader from a faraway planet, but they didn’t know the humans were here. They did seem to know Mae was, though, and it was only so long before they spotted the abnormal cloaked ship hovering above them.

Slate was right, we needed to end this now. Something rustled near the back of the room, and Slate fired a quick shot, killing the computer tablet on the wall, shutting the lights down. The helmets’ night vision sprang to life, and we covered the doorway so no one could get through. I stayed at the door while Slate headed toward the noise. I heard and saw three quick red pulse beams, and then silence.

“Slate?” I whispered into my mic.

“I got one, boss. Get the device and let’s do this thing once and for all.”

I moved to his location, seeing a Bhlat smaller than I expected. It was slender, and less ridged than the ones we’d encountered. I almost dropped the Deltra weapon when I realized what that meant. It was a female of their kind.

“Doesn’t matter,” Slate said, “just do it.” He was proving to be quite the robot, but that might have been what I needed right then.

Sliding the DNA sample stick from the back, I found a wound from the rifle, took a deep breath to stifle the wrongness of what I was doing, and jabbed it in. The device whirred to life again, following the same pattern as it had before.

“Make it snappy,” Slate called to me as we heard the door slide open.

What is idpewa here? a Bhlat asked into the darkness.

Slate fired a few rounds, and I heard two forms slump to the ground before the alarms raised again.

“What’s happening down there, Dean?” Mary’s voice came through my earpiece. I ignored it, not wanting to talk, mostly because I was holding my breath as I waited for the device to be ready to work.

“Dean, there are more coming!” Slate yelled.

“Come on, come on,” I said, and the icon glowed green. I hesitated, seeing the dead female Bhlat on the ground before me, and the door opened once again, laser fire blasting into the room at us. I nearly dropped the device; Slate grunted and ran across the room, shooting a volley of red death on the Bhlat.

Everything slowed for me for a split second. Laser fire inched around the room, Slate’s yells turned to slow-motion calls from the movies, and all there was on the moon was this device, and fifty living beings. I pressed the button, and time caught up.

“Thank God,” Slate said from twenty meters away. He was on the ground, green in my night vision. The Bhlat were all down, not a breath left in their alien bodies. I found, at that moment, that I wanted to know more about them: everything about their race, but I knew nothing, and I’d killed them without so much as the press of a touchscreen icon.

We’d been told they were evil, and that they would destroy us, but could we trust the hybrids or Deltra after all they’d done to us?

“Dean, what the hell is going on down there?” Mary asked again, this time not so cordially.

“Mary, we’re okay. It’s done.”

“What about Mae?” she asked.

I’d nearly forgotten about her. “Slate, are you okay?” I asked, moving to his slouched form.

He got up, dusting his uniform off. “I tripped on something, but no worse for the wear. Just a twisted ankle, and my arm’s still tender. We have to find Mae, and quickly.”

We entered the hall, stepping over the melted forms of the unarmored Bhlat, Slate hardly noticing them at all.

“I’ll go left, you go the way we came,” I said, taking the lead.

Slate’s large frame moved quickly down the hall as the sunken corridor lights flared red, alarms still blaring along the way. I tried to not look at the corpses spread around the floor. Some might have been children; most were unarmed.

“Mary, we’re searching for Mae. Is her ship still docked?” I asked.

“She’s still down there. Do you need assistance?” Mary asked through my earpiece.

We probably did, but the last thing I wanted was the doctor or my injured fiancée to be running around the outpost, looking for our missing hybrid.

“We got this. Whatever happens, don’t let that ship get away.”

“Affirmative,” came the stiff reply.

The outpost had wide corridors, probably enough room for three of the large aliens to walk side by side, and the ceilings were at least ten feet. The sound of a sliding door down the hall caused my heart to race, and I slowly moved toward it, firmly holding my rifle. The door was closed, and I stepped forward, letting it slide open as I moved to the side, trying to catch a glimpse of what was inside. It looked like a classroom of some sort, but I didn’t see anyone inside from that quick glance.

This time, I raised the rifle, moving through the entrance, spinning to the left and then to the right, before suddenly getting kicked in the knee as Mae came into view from the near corner of the room. My blaster went off, hitting the ground in a smoldering beam.

“Mae, listen,” I tried to say before getting kicked in the stomach. I was down on the ground in an instant, knee aching and breath torn from my lungs.

“No, you listen.” She kicked my gun away, stepping on my hand. It pinned my fingers and palm against the cold hard metal grate floor. “I came here to help you. To tell them you were all gone, dead in the war with the Kraski. This would have bought you a few years. You could have moved to Proxima. But you came here and killed them!”

Anger coursed through me. So she did know them and had left us to meet with them. It all sounded like lies over lies, and if there was a truth left in the story, it was so convoluted and buried, it would be almost impossible to uncover.

“Mae, I believe you,” I lied, hoping she would get off my pained hand. Her foot pressure lessened, and my training from Slate took over. I lifted her foot with all my strength, sending her small frame back a yard while I quickly got to my feet.

She wasn’t holding a weapon, probably not expecting a fight when she’d landed on the Bhlat outpost. We both eyed my rifle on the ground a few feet away, and when she lunged for it, I made my move. I swung my leg toward her body, connecting to her side, sending her sprawling away. She still managed to grip the barrel of the rifle, and while she tried to turn it around at me, I covered the distance and grabbed the rifle as well. We struggled with each other, her back on the ground, me bent over her.

Her injuries had healed nicely. “We found out your injuries at the base on Earth were fake. How did you do it? Hit yourself with a two-by-four?”

“It was the only way to ensure you guys left. I didn’t know where the base and ships were being held, and they would never tell a hybrid. I did it all for your kind. I did it for you.” The last words hung in the air as we struggled for the weapon. She tried to kick out, but Slate had taught me how to prevent that when grappling. The wind was starting to lessen from her sails.