LENA

 

I had to find Henry. He should hear it from me.

I'd pretty much begged the President to ask the Committee to reconsider, but she'd explained for the last time that the decision was out of her hands. Majority ruled and it wasn't her role to make this choice for the entire planet.

In other words, we were screwed. The Etrallia were screwed and we would be soon.

The next day, instead of packing up my supplies in the med bay, I deliberately set out for Henry's quarters. When no one answered the door, I figured he must be working. At first, I thought it was strange that he didn't meet us at the loading dock. Now, I worried he'd already heard the news. Refusing to accept this, I decided to try the lab.

As I made my way through the main corridor, an Etrallian politician looked at me sideways. I was so surprised by the eye contact, I nearly stumbled over my own feet. Not once since arriving here had the heads or politicians paid us any mind. They all seemed content to ignore human beings so long as we were content to ignore them. He stared as we passed each other and I sucked in a breath of air, frozen for a moment. He disappeared around the corner a second later and a wave of relief washed over me.

I arrived at the lab a little out of breath.

"Henry," I called tentatively, my voice echoing throughout the space. The lab was utterly empty. If Mars had been here, he must have already left. Which didn't make any sense, actually. He was supposed to be gathering our samples, packing up whatever we had a legitimate claim to before returning to the pod.

I ventured past the workbenches and microscopes to check the room hidden in the back.

The second laboratory was unusually dark, faint illumination coming from an exterior window full of stars. The machines glowed green and yellow in the dimness, allowing me to see the outline of their shapes as they whirred and hissed.

Through the shadows, I could make out a strange contraption. A wire of some sort stretched from wall to wall with large sacks hanging from it. On the floor, a large vat gurgled and churned, black liquid sloshing inside. Tubes fed into the vat on all sides, directly linked to the sack-like objects up above.

"Lena."

I jumped, clenching my fists, fingernails biting into my palms.

Gillis stepped from the darkness, amber eyes aglow. "What brings you here?" His gaze traveled my length and then settled on my face. His lips curved into a genuine smile.

It took me aback. The last I saw him he'd been spewing venom about the selfish nature of human beings. Now, he seemed calm and collected. It spooked me more than all the Etrallia politicians combined.

"Where's Mars?" I choked back my fear and met his eyes. "Have you seen him?"

Gillis inclined his head. "Indeed." He leaned back, resting his arms on the table.

"Do you care to share when you saw him?" If he was in the mood to play games, I wasn't biting.

Gillis shrugged. "You just missed him. It's a shame, really. He left in a hurry."

I raised an eyebrow. Did I trust him to tell me the truth? I peered deeper into the room as if expecting to find my friend gagged and bound. I looked closer and my hands grew cold. That's when I realized what the sacks were.

My heart kicked in my chest as my mind struggled to comprehend what it was seeing.

They weren't sacks, they were bodies. Human bodies. Strung up like animals, heads dangling limply toward the floor. The dark liquid coursing through the tubes...

It had to be blood.

My jaw dropped without my permission.

"Not the most effective method." Gillis watched me impassively. "But it does do the job. You should see the first few rounds." He shook his head slowly. "Disastrous."

I couldn't reply--couldn't think. Was he draining them? Their blood? With effort, I schooled my racing thoughts. A human body was nearly sixty percent water. And this was a mad scientist I was dealing with. A desperate scientist who probably thought he was saving his people.

"You're a monster," I breathed.

Maybe they weren't the wisest words to utter aboard an alien ship. But if any person--any living being--could do this and feel no remorse, it was the appropriate word. I didn't care that my people had refused them access to our oceans. I didn't care that they'd come in peace and wanted to work together. For a moment, I didn't care that they were on the verge of extinction.

My people were hanging from a wire in an Etrallian laboratory. Murdered. Lifeless. For an experiment that wasn't likely to save any more lives than it would take.

Gillis had made a choice. For all I knew, the whole Etrallian fleet had made a choice.

They'd chosen themselves. They'd chosen Etrallia. And if we weren't already at war, we were now.

"Curran won't be pleased." My voice sounded numb to my own ears.

Gillis laughed. "I have nothing to hide." He gestured to his contraption. "Run and tell him. You'll find I'm not the only one who feels this way."

I couldn't believe him. Curran would never condone such drastic action. Not even after we'd failed him. He didn't want war any more than we did because he knew as well as anyone how it would end. The Etrallia would lose more of their people than they could afford.

For us, it would be self-defense. For them, it would be a last stand. Maybe the very last.

I ran.

I should have stayed and checked every face to make sure what Gillis said was true. I should have looked for Mars but instead, instinct took over and I ran for the pod.

Mars had to be alive. He had to.

And I had to warn the others. If I could make it back to Earth in time--

I rounded the corner outside of the mess hall and collided with a wall. A tall, hard, Etrallian wall.

"Lena!" Wide arms encapsulated me and I immediately pushed against them.

"Let me go!" Roughly, I fought my way out of the embrace. The face above me was more familiar than any of my team. I took a firm step back all the same.

"I've been looking for you," Henry explained, his antenna twitching madly.

His agitation did nothing to soothe my nerves. He reached for me again, clearly concerned, but I stopped him with a hand.

"No." A dark anger clawed its way into my stomach. My blood still running hot, I looked Henry in the face. "We offer you water," I said slowly, "and this is how you repay us?"

Henry said nothing.

I wanted him to speak. To deny he knew what I was talking about.

He didn't.

For a second, I couldn't breathe. I tried to step around him, but he shifted, blocking my path.

"Lena."

"Let me through," I said firmly, voice rising.

"Lena, what is this about?"

"What is this about?" I snapped. "Gillis is running human experiments. That's what this is about!"

Henry glanced around as if worried someone might overhear.

I didn't give a damn about his discretion. "We try our best to help you and you let that maniac murder my people." Now I really was yelling.

Henry pulled me further down the hallway and leaned in close. "I didn't know, I swear to you."

The hard metal of the wall dug into my back. "Bullshit."

Henry blinked, not understanding. "He is a scientist."

"As am I," I shot back. "But I haven't been experimenting on your people like I stumbled upon a bunch of space rats."

"It is only him, Lena. But if what you say is true, then you must know he will not stop. He will get what he wants."

I shook my head. This was everything that could possibly go wrong. And yet it wasn't entirely unexpected, was it? God, I was a complete idiot.

"I was warned this would happen."

I slipped away from Henry and made for the loading dock. There wasn't a minute to waste.

"Lena." Henry lurched after me. I could hear him thudding down the hall as I broke into a run. He could run, but he couldn't stop me. He wouldn't.

Maybe I never really knew him at all. I was foolish, I realized. Foolish to trust him so easily, foolish to think he'd be any different.

I turned blindly around the corners. I knew the direction of the loading dock. Knew the way by heart by now, except this wasn't it. I was in a darkly lit space, large like the docking area, but void of ships. Wrong turn.

I pivoted to get my bearings and came face to face with a seven-foot Etrallian. This one wasn't Henry.

He growled something at me, clawed hand gesturing harshly. I checked my comm device, made sure it was on.

"I'm sorry," I said. "What was that?"

The Etrallian roared. There were no words.

"I know, this is restricted. Sorry, I'm a little turned around." Why was I even trying to explain? He clearly didn't have a comm device. Or if he did, he wasn't interested in using it.

The Etrallian advanced on me, antenna waving, claws extended. I backed into the wall, hard, all the air rushing out of me. I couldn't get around.

He snarled again, drawing the weapon on his hip. A louder snarl came from the doorway. My attacker charged. Electricity whirred from his stun gun, the bright glare was all I could see before Henry stepped in front of me.

I braced for the blow, but instead of a hundred volts of fire coursing through my veins, all I could feel was the weight of Henry pressed against me. I was pinned, trapped. But it was better than being stunned. Or worse, killed.

Henry ripped the weapon from my attacker and bellowed something in the ancient tongue. I didn't need a translation to know it was a curse.

"She's lost," he switched back to Etrallian. "We're going now." He reached for my wrist, but I brushed him off.

These were not my people. These people wanted me dead.

Temples throbbing, I pushed away from the one Etrallian I'd dared to call friend. Henry's voice echoed in my head as I made for the loading dock. The whole way there, he called my name. The whole way, I could think of nothing but getting back to Earth.