What I’m looking at is another species of alien.
This thing is what has enslaved us all.
“That’s…” My eyes widen as I stare at it.
It starts with disbelief…then I feel fear…then…anger.
Hatred. Anger. They both fill me as I stare at the thing.
Somehow, I unwrap Sam’s arms from around my own as I crawl on my hands and knees., moving closer to the gray, fleshy being in the dirt.
I hear the hisses of the aliens around me. In the corner of my eye, I see Lava Eyes’ blades rise once more and I pause.
My gaze meets his but he does not stop me. So I slowly move forward again, closer to the gray blob.
I stare down at it when I get near.
This…this thing.
This is what was in that machine?
“Your enemy…” Lava Eyes speaks. “Our enemy…”
I can feel my heart thumping in my throat at his words.
I am understanding now.
Maybe Sam is right. Maybe these new aliens are on our side.
I look up at Lava Eyes and take some courage in the fact that not one of his kind has interacted with us…yet.
They certainly look like a hostile race…not the saviors we prayed for.
But why would this alien lie to me?
Him and his kind have the upper hand.
They can do whatever they want…
Which leads me to the conclusion that…Lava Eyes is telling the truth.
As the thought settles, my gaze falls back on the crude face and strange body of the dead alien before us.
What I thought were octopi-like limbs turn out not to be so.
It had about six arms and they aren’t boneless. Its limbs have more joints than I can count and they are pretty long.
A shiver runs through me.
I cannot imagine what this species looks like alive and walking.
But what catches my attention the most is the face.
The dark eyes look back at me and even though there is no life within them, I can feel the soullessness of the creature’s gaze.
This thing has sucked our blood? Destroyed my world?
Impregnated us?
This what I’m looking at is responsible for so much?
I stare at it without breaking focus.
It is taking some time for my mind to comprehend that what I’m looking at is responsible for all the death and destruction I have witnessed.
My whole world is gone because of this creature. The machines hadn’t been some sort of advanced AI race. This creature had been its pilot.
They’d come here and taken everything.
Everything I’d known.
My whole family.
My friends.
My world.
“Why?” I whisper, the word almost inaudible before my voice rises. “WHY?!”
The word tears from my throat with as much emotion as I’m suddenly feeling.
My body shakes with the heartbreak of what I’ve witnessed over the past few months. Pain racks through my body, shaking my frail form.
I don’t know when I reach for it, but there’s a rock in my good hand.
I raise it and slam it down on the dead alien.
Once.
Twice.
Three times my arm rises and falls as I scream.
“Why?!”
Tears choke me as everything I have lost comes pouring out.
Sam appears beside me, her eyes wide. She doesn’t stop me but tears are streaming down her face too and only when my arm rises and doesn’t fall once more do I stop.
Someone is holding my arm and I know it is him even without looking up.
His suit writhes against my skin a little but the strangeness of it is dim compared to the heartbreak killing my soul.
I stare at the battered being in front of me, still choking on my own emotions.
All my family is dead.
Humanity is hanging by a thread.
And this thing is responsible for it all.
I hear some clicks and thrums and the alien’s body is kicked so hard, it sails toward the water.
I look up, my eyes clouded with tears to meet the unreadable lava eyes of the alien above me.
I cannot read emotions in that alien gaze of his. His red eyes…dark skin… He looks like the exact thing I am taught to fear.
The world has really turned upside down.
Nothing is the same. Nothing will ever be the same again.
Because I am torn.
Destroyed.
Speechless.
And the devil is holding my hand.
Chapter Eleven
FER’RO
The little female’s aggression makes us thrum with pleasure.
As she slams the small rock into the Gryken’s body, I do not stop her.
None of us do.
We can sense her distress. Her pain.
Her anger.
It mirrors ours.
She crushes the Gryken in the same way it has crushed countless worlds.
It deserves every blow she puts on it. It is only a pity it is not still alive to feel the pain.
I kick its battered body toward the water and it lands not too far from it.
The female has released some of what aches her inside, but she is spent.
I can see it in how her body sags.
“Plant it,” I say, and Ga’Var clicks in agreement.
He and some of my brethren move away toward the Gryken’s body but others remain.
My gaze flicks over them.
None have returned to our ship. Possibly, they are awaiting my command to do so.
Unofficially, I have become their leader. A role I do not want, but one I will perform with great honor.
If my race can help rid the universe of the Gryken, I will do all that is in my power to make sure that happens.
I hear Ga’Var hiss as he lifts the Gryken’s battered body. One of his hackles pierces right through it.
Both female’s stare with wide eyes as he impales it with a metal pole and slams the pole into the earth below.
A barbaric act, but one that sends a message nonetheless.
They are our enemy—ours and these beings before us.
My gaze flicks back to the female and I hope she understands the message.
We are not her enemy.
San’ten clicks sharply from behind them and they jerk.
I can tell their sense of perception is not very good. They are not very aware of the movements around them or how my brethren struggle to fight their instincts because of the scent of their fear.
“This one,” he clicks, his gaze falling on the female lying flat on the ground. “This one is infested.”
A hiss leaves my lips that I’m too slow to hold back.
I knew as much.
That is what the Gryken’s do.
They forcefully breed, cloning themselves in the wombs of other species.
In their short life-span, they kill many, many females, oftentimes tearing the female apart in the process of their birth into this world.
I saw it happen with my own eyes to the females of my world.
My hackles have risen again without me realizing.
I only know the image I’m projecting when I see it reflected in the brown-haired female’s eyes.
She lets go of the other and scrambles over to the infested one as if she understands we are speaking about her.
She is not capable of fighting us, yet she attempts to guard another.
Does she even know what the other female harbors? What is growing inside her?