Sequence (3 page)

Reptilian

Chris saw on the holographic monitor that they had moved away from the white star and were now directly above a green planet.

They abducted one of the native creatures to include in their experiment, and t
he first mate said, “Okay, we got one.”

The planet’s atmosphere was steady and calming. Then
Chris saw a flash of light on the surface. The first mate yelled out, “We’re under attack.”

The
other two robots moved quickly at their consoles and the view on the monitor changed instantly.

T
hey were beside the huge star once more, safe from whatever projectile the aliens had launched their way.

Chris
had felt no movement when they’d jumped away. He hadn’t even felt the gravity shift. The attack hadn’t stood a chance with the ship being able to maneuver so easily.

Every robot seemed to relax now as the view changed again on the monitor. Now it showed the inside of the dark cell
Chris had been locked in when he first arrived. A black, leathery reptilian creature was in there, thrashing around blindly, trying to break its way out.

It had a black beak and two
stumpy arms with razor sharp talons on the ends instead of hands; at the joints were wicked looking spikes. It had huge webbed feet and muscular legs. On its back were two tiny vestigial wings that probably couldn’t lift the immense creature an inch from the ground. They looked cartoonish, like fairy wings.

It was clawing at the walls
, uttering a cacophony of anger-filled shrieks.

The captain put a headset on that resembled a football helmet but with wires and sensors attached
, and he spoke to the monitor: “You have been selected to come with us. It is a great honor for you and you’ll see that soon enough. Calm down or you’ll be subdued.”

The beast looked around the room with wild simian eyes. The eyes were out of place but they definitely gave it a look of higher intelligence. It shrieked at the room
at a deafening pitch in an indecipherable language.

The captain understood it though.

He said reassuringly, “You were selected because of your intelligence. We apologize that none of your people had the sense of adventure to volunteer. Please calm down and this will go smoothly. First, I need you to ingest the three small pills I’m about to supply you. Then I need you to put the metallic rod in your mouth. It’s a translator and it doubles as a breather.”

I
t all seemed so different from this side of the looking glass. Chris almost felt bad for the hideous beast trapped inside.

The creature handled the pills delicately and the captain said, “Take them or I will not let you out of that room. They’ll rid your body of contaminants.
”

The reptilian alien threw the pills at the wall and shrieked again, louder this time.

The captain yelled, “Just because you aren’t taking the pills doesn’t mean we’re going to take you home. We’re not stupid. If need be, we’ll force them into you. Hurry up now. You’re trying my patience.”

To
Chris he said, “What a stubborn race.”

Chris
nodded but he fully understood how the reptile felt. It had been abducted against its will, just like Chris had. It probably had a girlfriend too, or a reptilian equivalent. Then again, maybe Chris didn’t have the knowledge to make such assumptions. But it certainly didn’t want to be here.

Serendipity

The reptile finally capitulated and ate its pills. It took a little coaxing for it to put the metallic rod in its mouth
, and when it finally did, it struggled fiercely against it. But the rod won out in the end.

Then the beast became serene, seeming
to accept its fate. It shit all over the floor and then it was forced to endure the sterilization processes Chris had just gone through.

With that done it was let out and convinced to walk down the corridor towards the command station.

Chris found that he was holding his breath. The captain stood in front of the door and waited for it to open. When it finally did, the reptile launched itself at the robotic captain with a ferocity that made Chris stumble backwards and yelp in fear. He looked around quickly for a place to hide, but the other crew members didn’t seem too worried.

The captain grabbed the reptile in a headlock and said, “I’d explain this to you but I doubt you’d listen.” Then he dragged the reptile out of th
e other door, towards the corridor that led to the stasis rooms.

Chris
was shaking. He’d never been so afraid in his life. But this was all just another day at the office for the robotic aliens in charge. No wonder they seemed to like him; he was probably one of the few who’d accepted his fate with little resistance. That realization made him feel like a coward.

The captai
n returned and said to his first mate: “Strong little bastard.”

To
Chris he said, “You’re in luck. What just happened was serendipitous to say the least. He damaged your stasis pod while I struggled with him. It’ll take some time before it’s repaired. In the meantime you will stay with us in the command station so long as you stay out of our way. If you pose any problems for us or for the mission, you’ll be dealt with severely.”

If
Chris had been put into stasis just moments earlier, would he have survived the damage the pod had just sustained? The thought put a chill in his bones. He was against going into stasis now more than ever.

But
he was conflicted too. Maybe it would be better after all if he went into stasis before he saw anything else that went on in this ship. The mission and its ramifications scared the crap out of him. And worse yet: what if it was successful and a living god was created? What would that mean for the universe? What if it was an angry god?

Dead Planet

One of the crew members said, “They’ve found us and launched another attack. We’d better get out of here. These guys are overly protective.”

The reptiles were clearly upset at the forced abduction of one of their own.

A dozen circular projectiles were approaching at a frightening speed. If they hit
the ship, Chris had no doubt that they’d be killed.

The captain nodded and
his crew got to work.

T
he view of the sun vanished in a flash. A black planet now revolved slowly on the monitor.

The captain asked, “Is this right? There’s supposed to be a civilization here.”

The planet beneath them appeared barren and dead.

The first m
ate ordered, “Scour for communications. Find out what happened here.”

Both of the other crew members got to work fiddling with switches and manipulating holographic displays.

Within a few minutes one of them said, “I got something here. It’s pretty clean so I think it’s recent.”

The captain ordered him to play it. It was an audio recording
, a distress signal sent from the surface of the planet to a ship.

The audio
issued forth from the unseen speakers on their ship, for them all to hear:

The Grays have attacked. We’re fighting back but they seem to anticipate our every move.
It’s a slaughter, Commander. I fear that by the time you receive this communication, our race will be no more. Come as soon as you can. Our very survival depends on it. Please hurry.

The transmission ended with a
click and a static hiss.

The captain muttered, “Those fucking Grays. What compels them to do this?”
He spoke with sadness in his voice, but also bitterness, and something else too. The captain seemed to know more than he was saying, like maybe he knew exactly why the Grays had done it but he didn’t want Chris to know. Then again, maybe Chris was just imagining things.

T
hen the captain said to the first mate, “Find out if that communication was ever received. Get those coordinates and maybe the mission isn’t a complete loss. If we find that commander, we can take his DNA.”

The first m
ate said, “These people were classified as level two priorities. We might not need them at all if they haven’t evolved since the last time they were scouted.”

The captain shook his head angrily. “They’ve discovered space travel. That’s significant enough to warrant their inclusion. Do your damn job.”

The first mate turned and nodded at his subordinates and they got to work.

Chris
asked, “Did the Grays destroy the entire planet?”

“Yeah, it’s a hobby of theirs. They find a worthy race, infiltrate them to gather intel, and then wipe them out. We have no idea why they do what they do.”
Again, Chris imagined he could detect deceit in the captain’s tone when he said he didn’t know the Grays’ motives. If the captain wasn’t a monstrous robotic freak, Chris might have insisted he tell him the truth.

Instead he said,
“There have been unconfirmed reports of Grays on Earth. Does that mean they’re scouting my planet too?”

“I don’t know.
Maybe.”

If so, there was a chance they’d wipe out all of humanity once they were done scouting. The more Chris learned, the worse he felt.

The first mate interrupted: “We’ve got something, Captain. It’s a ship, and it’s big.”

“Where is it?”

“It’s approaching us at speed.”

“Shit.”

“Should we jump?”

“No. Let’s see where this goes.”

Samda

The first mate said, “They’re attacking us. We need to move.”

“Just skip out of the way of whatever they throw at us and open a line of communication. This could take a while.”

The view on the floating holographic monitor changed by the second as the ship maneuvered to avoid the attacks. The attacking ship was big, maybe even larger than theirs, though it was almost impossible for Chris to tell one way or the other. He didn’t really know how big this ship was and it was tough to tell the size of the attacking ship without a frame of reference. It was flat and circular with large blocky protrusions at the top and tiny round portholes along the edges. It was silver, probably meaning it was simply unpainted metal. It was firing from three small guns mounted on a turret on top.

The first m
ate kept saying, “They’re not responding.”

T
he captain said nothing besides, “Keep at it. They’ll get tired or bored eventually.”

Chris
had an image flash into his mind’s eye of one of those attacks succeeding and breaching the hull of the ship. He’d never had to wonder what it would be like to suffocate in space, but he did now. Then again, as far as he could tell, not a single shot had hit or damaged the ship.

The captain said, “These guys don’t give up. Open a one way communication to let them see that we’re not who they think we are.”

“Done.”

The captain put on his football helmet and said to the attackers, “We are not an enemy. We are explorers. Please stop firing upon us.”

“They’re hailing us,” the first mate said.

“Open it.”

The monitor flickered with static as the alien signal was converted. Then an image appeared on the monitor that was so odd that Chris couldn’t quite wrap his head around it. On the monitor was a female human. Well, she was almost human. She was hairless and her skin was a pale orange color. Her teeth were all fused together and her ears and nose were too small to see. But she was humanoid. She wore loose robes in a kaleidoscope of colors and her face was tattooed with black swirling markings, but she was the closest thing he’d seen to a human since he’d boarded the ship.

She said, “I apologize for attacking your ship.
I assumed you were the Grays returning to finish us off.”

“We are a research vessel. We were stunned to see your planet in ruins. I’m so sorry for your loss.”

She smiled sadly. “It’s funny. There were those who tried to warn us that the Grays existed and that they were among us, but we didn’t believe them. We thought they were delusional, or just simple crack-pots. We thought the Grays were a fairy tale.”

The captain nodded solemnly. “How many of your people are left?”

Chris couldn’t be sure, but he thought he heard a hint of expectation in the captain’s robotic voice.

The female avoided answering the question. “My name is Samda. Who are you?”

“You can call me Captain.”

Samda chuckled reflexively.
“Okay then, Captain. What do you want?”

“We need a sample of DNA from one of your people
, Samda. We need a live specimen for our grand experiment.”

Samda laughed heartily. She said
more soberly, “So even though I just told you that my species has nearly been wiped out, you want to deplete our ranks even more by taking one of us? I don’t think so.”

The captain laughed as Samda vanished from view. The monitor now showed the inside of a darkened
and cavernous ship.

The first m
ate said, “Got her, Captain.”