The cockpit controls went dark as the beam pulled us into the alien craft.
I gave up my hold on the controls and pulled off my aviator glasses. Even with the shades, I couldn’t see a thing. “Flash emergency lights, headlights, scanning beams, anything.”
Sirius shook his head, still gripping the lever that should reverse the thrusters. “It’s all dead. I can’t even communicate with the New Dawn. The beam is sucking our energy.”
A screeching sound echoed from the back hull. I whipped around. “Is the ship caving in?”
Sirius climbed up a ladder to peer through a periscope hanging from the ceiling. “The hatch is closing behind us. They’re sealing us in.” Darkness fell, the only light the faint shine of our locators. At least we aren’t going to fry.
Sirius pried his fingers off the lever and took my hand. “We’ll deal with whatever comes, okay?”
My chin quivering with too much emotion, I shook my head. I couldn’t deal with another failure.
The ship screeched and shook as we landed and ground to a halt. Then, silence.
My heart beat in my eardrums and my whole body shook. Sirius pulled me close. “Listen. You’re the best team expedition leader on the New Dawn. You can do this.”
I took a deep breath and straightened, bringing my shoulders up and back. Refusing to look weak in front of Sirius, I released his hand and brushed my sweaty palms on my uniform. “You’re right. We’re going to be fine. We just have to stick to the procedures.”
Gavin entered the cockpit, followed by Lyra and Alcor. Lyra wiped tears from her pretty face, smearing her mascara, and Alcor shook like a blossom in the wind. His pale skin had turned ghostly ashen. Gavin handed Sirius and me lasers. The cold barrel reassured me. “These are the last ones we’ve got. They didn’t equip us with much.”
“It’s supposed to a peaceful mission.” I made eye contact with each person on my team. “You know the rules of engagement. Although we have lasers, they’re for protection only. None of you can shoot unless I give the signal.”
Alcor fidgeted with his laser. His beady eyes looked too sneaky to trust. “What’s the signal?”
I extended my arm in front of me and moved it in a wide, horizontal arc. “Any questions?”
Shaking his head, Alcor plopped to the floor and curled his legs up into a ball. Lyra fixed her hair, probably a nervous gesture she wasn’t aware of, and Gavin cracked his knuckles and tensed his thick biceps. Maybe he was right to do more pull-ups than verb conjugations.
The controls beeped, and Sirius’ eyes widened as he read the screen.
My voice hardened. “I thought our systems were offline.”
Sirius gazed at us and swallowed hard. I’d never seen him this fazed. “They’ve activated certain circuits. The back hatch to the loading bay is opening by itself.
I clicked my laser on, and the photon chamber charged. My team needed me to be strong, and I wasn’t going to let them down. “Andromeda met alien ghosts, but we’re going to meet the real deal.”
The pieces were already set in motion. There was only one choice to be made. I pushed my way through my team. A leader should take the first steps. “Come on.”
“Where are you going?” Alcor whimpered.
“To the loading bay, and everyone’s coming with me.”
Holding my laser in front of me, I walked the length of the passenger seats. Oxygen masks dangled from the ceiling, and some of the seats had folded up. No sign of anything out of order. I checked my locator. The device registered me and my team and nothing else on the ship.
Behind me Sirius whispered, “What do you see?”
“Nothing. They’re waiting for us to come out.”
“What if it’s a trap?” Alcor bounced up and down, making the chrome floor squeak.
Yeah, he’ll be great with aliens. Dammit, Andromeda. Why’d you stick me with mooncalves?
I narrowed my eyes. “It most likely is.” You’d think such an advanced civilization could find a way to communicate without dragging their visitors in. “Our mission is to learn as much about them as we can. We sure-as-deep-space won’t learn anything by staying in here.”
The cooler air from the outer corridor made goose bumps break out all over my arms and neck. My heart skidded in my chest as I reached the balcony. The loading bay spread out beneath me. Using the light from my locator, I scanned the rows of supply containers, just in case the aliens didn’t register on my locator. A soybean wrapper lay on the ramp, the silver lining twitching in a faint breeze blowing from inside the ship. Besides that, nothing.
I curled my forefinger over my head, and my team followed.
We descended the metal stairs into the loading bay. I gestured for them to spread out behind me. We walked in a half-circle formation to the hatch.
The darkness in the alien chamber was absolute. The air smelled dank and stale, like the broken ventilation systems on the New Dawn. The plink-plunk of dripping water echoed in the cavernous space.
Turning my head, I whispered, “Sirius, can you find a beacon light?”
“Sure thing.” He broke from the group as we kept watch, rummaging in the supply containers.
Alcor’s teeth chattered while we waited. I craned my head to Gavin. “Perhaps you should say something?”
He gave me a wary look. “What?”
Some linguist. “A universal gesture, a peace offering, something.”
Sirius came up behind me and handed me a beacon light. “I found three more.”
“Good job. Hand the others out.” At least someone on my team was capable. While Sirius moved to the others, I clicked my on beacon light, and a golden stream shot out into the darkness. Shapes loomed, and I thought a whole army waited for us before I realized they were giant stalagmites. Made of metal.
“Holy moly.” Lyra marveled like she’d just discovered a new, shiny surface to use as a mirror.
I gave her a steady stare. “Stay serious, people. We’re on a mission.”
Three other light beams penetrated the shadows. The stalagmites continued as far as I could see. A flickering shadow moved between them. Or was it a product of my imagination?
“Gavin.” My voice sounded impatient. “Have you thought of something to say?”
He cleared his throat and stepped forward, our beacon light shining around him. “We come in peace. Nous venons en paix. Chegamos em paz. Venim în pace. Vi kommer i fred.” He went on to speak in Japanese, Hebrew, and ancient Greek. His voice resonated in the cavern, echoing long after he’d spoken.
I held my hand up, and we waited for a response. A clicking noise, like someone clipping their fingernails, sent a shiver up my spine.
Alcor whispered. “Can we shoot now?”
I gave him a reproachful glare. “Absolutely not.”
“That’s it. I’m just going to go in and see what happens.” Gavin moved, and I grabbed his arm.
“Wait.” Disquiet stirred in my gut, spreading throughout my body like a disease. If they wanted to make contact, they would have done so by now, in some form or another. They were waiting, sizing us up.
“Sirius, get me a perimeter pole.” I know I should have asked Lyra, our field work assistant, but I trusted Sirius more. There was no room for error.
“I’m on it.” Sirius disappeared to the back of the loading bay and came back with a long, silver pole twice my height.
“That will never work. If they can manipulate our electricity...” Gavin had moved beside me.
“I’m not using it for defense.” I slipped off my uniform blazer and dangled it on the pole. Taking hesitant steps toward the back hatch of our ship, I stuck the pole into the darkness.
A pungent, sickly sweet aroma tickled my nostrils. It reminded me of a radiant flower, beautiful, but poisonous. I closed my mouth, trying not to let the scent overpower me.
Behind me Alcor whispered, “What reeks?”
Before I could shush him, movement descended from the ceiling. “Over there!” I nudged with my chin. “Shine the light.”
The beams shot to the movement, illuminating a few hairs as long as the ones on my head, but thick and prickly, protruding from a leg like a tree branch. Then it was gone.
“Keep looking.” I stepped forward, swaying the pole back and forth so my coat moved.
Motion blurred in the shadows on top of the hatch. The pole jerked out of my hands and sailed through the air before landing with a clang on the floor of the alien ship. My blazer was gone.
“That’s it. I’m going back to the cockpit.” Alcor ran for the stairs behind us.
Panic rushed through me. “Hold your ground.”
Sirius stood at one of our ship’s mainframe panels, using the energy from his locator to turn it on. “Alcor, stop. They’ve opened our main hatch. They’re all over the ship.”
As Alcor reached the top of the stairs, something moved on the balcony in front of him. He screamed, flailing his arms.
“Can we shoot now?” Gavin’s finger twitched on the trigger.
Screw the mission objective. I aimed my laser at the moving shadow. “Shoot!”
Laser fire erupted, my gun growing hot in my hands.
As Alcor retreated, a sharp, angular leg shot out of the shadows and stabbed him though the thigh. He screamed in pain, the sound ripping my heart. Time was moving too fast, and my body moved like I swam in murky water.
The leg yanked Alcor forward as he screamed bloody murder. I caught the shape of something white and bubbly as the thing turned, dragging Alcor into the passenger hold.
“They’re behind us!” Lyra yelped, firing her laser into the dark cavern.
This is so not happening. I steeled my nerves. Not on my mission. “Hold them back.”
I fired in a steady stream at the balcony to keep any more of them from coming in. “Sirius, can you close any of the portals between us and them?”
“Negative.”
Freaking mother of a black hole. I clenched my teeth. I had to think of something fast or we’d all die.
Something shot through the air. A sickening thump sounded, and Lyra fell backward, clutching her chest.
Gavin took up her position, firing at our ship’s open hatch.
“Cover the balcony.”
As he started to fire, I knelt beside Lyra. A brown spire with poky hairs, coarse as wire, stuck from her chest. Some kind of bluish liquid oozed from the wound. Lyra gazed up with wild eyes and breathed heavily. Foam seeped from her lips and she fought for air.
“Stay with me, Lyra.” Our medic had just been stolen and I only knew the basics of first aid.
Gavin shouted in front of me. “I can’t hold them back forever.”
“I know. Just give me one minute.”
Spiral daggers shot through the air, and Gavin ducked, hiding behind a supply container. I dragged Lyra to where Sirius crouched behind a stack of food storage units, firing at the balcony.
He chanced a look down before returning to the balcony. “What happened?”
“I’m not sure. She’s having trouble breathing.” I wrapped both hands around the spire in her chest. The coarse hairs scratched my skin, and my grip grew slick with blood. I yanked the spire out and discarded it beside us. As I pressed on her wound, bluish liquid welled up through my fingers.
“Where’s the first-aid kit?”
Sirius gestured across the loading bay. “Container seven-A.”
“Damn.”
I glanced at Lyra.
Her eyes stared blankly at the ceiling above my head.
I shook her shoulders. “Lyra!”
She jerked underneath me.
I whirled around. A metal weave-work of tendrils was attached to her left foot. “Something’s got her!”
The force yanked her so hard she hit the pile of food storage units shielding us, and they toppled over, one hitting me in the head. Stars erupted behind my eyelids, and I blinked, forcing myself up. I reached out and grabbed under her arms, but my hands were slippery with blood. A twined rope of metal wire dragged her down the ramp.
Her face stared at me blankly as she disappeared into the darkness.
My whole body shook with shock. The constant firing echoed in my head, making it hard to form coherent thoughts, never mind a plan. The mission was falling apart. People were getting hurt.
Three of us left: me, Sirius, and Gavin. Lyra and Alcor were down, perhaps dead. Think, Nova, think.
I turned to Sirius. “We’ve got to get out of here. We’re sitting ducks.”
“The loading bay sealed behind us. Where are we going to go?” Although he held his laser with firm hands, Sirius’ face was slack and pale.
There was only one place left to go. I checked my locator. Lyra and Alcor still had life signs.
“Deeper into their ship.”
Sirius cast me a questioning glance.
“Lyra and Alcor register on my locator. I’m not leaving without them.”
Sirius’ jaw hardened with determination. He gave me a decisive nod. “All right. I’m with you.”
I gestured toward Gavin and shouted across the loading bay. “We have a plan.”
“Good.” He shouted back. “’Cuz I’m not sitting here forever.”
Who knew if the aliens understood our language? Using my locator, I typed him a message. My fingers shook, causing typos everywhere. I didn’t have time to correct my spelling. Pressing the button down until my finger hurt, I pushed send.
I waited, watching Gavin’s face as he read his own locator.
Were goin to mke a run fr it. Go deepr into te ship.
He typed something back, firing at the same time. It took agonizing seconds to wait as his single finger pressed the keys.
I buy u time.
By the time I read it, Gavin had already launched himself down the ramp. “Now!”
Adrenaline coursed through me. I tugged on Sirius’ arm. “We’ve got to go, now!”