Alien Avatar: An Alien Sci-Fi Romance Read online

  He couldn’t stand sitting around doing nothing. Nobody from his tribe and none of Rakkan’s soldiers had seen Naeesha, which he took as a good sign. Well, as good of a sign as he could have if she was really gone. When he saw the Alderoccan attack, he feared that she’d been caught in the attack.

  But the Halians were okay. His tribe was safe. His future was intact.

  He decided to get to work on the trail for the next day to keep himself busy. It was the most constructive thing he could do, and getting ahead on work would let him do more to help out around camp the next day. The Halians reported that three missiles had hit their camp. No fatalities, thank Gods. But the dining hall had been damaged, and most of their kitchen would be out of commision.

  Thankfully, Rakkan’s group would be able to take on the added burden of feeding the fifty or so people in his tribe for now, but repairs would still need to be made. With the way that things had been going lately, he figured that the sooner that could happen, the better.

  He’d been right about the forest getting denser. Progress was slow, even though his arms had grown stronger from the days of hacking, and even though his plant-murdering technique had become exquisitely refined.

  All the better. It was a shame he couldn’t shift to his combat form. It would have been better for clearing the path, and better for keeping his mind focused. The shift altered his basic brain composition in a way that shut everything out. It was just one step away from untamed animal. He retained enough control to follow basic orders, and enough intelligence to identify his enemies and maximize his capacity to destroy them.

  But he knew Alderoccan military strategy. Where there was an assault wing, shock troops followed. Somewhere not too far away was a support base with hundreds, if not thousands of troops.

  The Alderoccans were pushing out. They intended to chase the Halians down and wipe them off the planet. But first, the bastard would have to find them. Marko had given Jintak the order to have his people clear the trail behind him as best they could. The same thick jungle that slowed their progress would also help to conceal their movements. The sky was barely visible overhead, and anyone looking down would have an even harder time seeing anything on the forest floor.

  Not to mention, the Alderoccans would have to be careful. They were out of their element, far from familiar territory. And they had seen that they were dealing with a capable enemy.

  Then again, that meant that they wouldn’t make the mistake of sending a small force after them again. The next time that they attacked, it would be with everything that they had. Either the Halians would have to go on the offensive and start fighting a guerilla war, or they would have to avoid contact with the enemy all together.

  This was, of course, assuming that Alderoccans wouldn’t give up on fighting fair and choose to carpet bomb them instead. They’d done it before, and now that they were cornered, he didn’t doubt that they would do it again.

  If they did, there was nothing to be done about it. Their bombers could attack from well beyond the range of the soldiers’ weapons, and there would be no hiding from their ordinance.

  Marko’s only hope was that they were keeping all of the big guns at the capital.

  He stopped to take a deep breath and to collect his thoughts. He’d gotten carried away again, letting his mind race, letting worry consume him. Once he’d taken a few moments to meditate and clear his mind, he started back on his path, focusing on his breath and the techniques of his swing. It worked nicely.

  So nicely, in fact, that he didn’t notice the gaping hole in the ground until it was too late.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Naeesha stayed towards the back of the group, her hand resting on the grip of her newly liberated plasma rifle. She kept her eyes on the treeline, and turned around frequently.

  She’d been part of enough attacks against the Halians to know that there were more Alderoccan forces nearby, and that they would be looking for revenge for the aircraft and pilots that had been lost in the shattered forest. The tribe was doing a good job of dismantling the trail behind them, and they were moving fast through dense jungle, but she still couldn't shake the feeling that danger was lurking in the darkened trees.

  In all likeliness, they wouldn’t attack until they’d been able to get their entire force together. Whenever a Halian group proved to be a capable fighting force the military rarely launched a second assault until they’d amassed a force large enough to crush any resistance.

  But that was assuming that it would take time for them to gather their forces, that they didn’t have a standing army nearby already, or that they weren’t already lying in wait on the trail. If Naeesha had been commanding their forces, that’s what she would have done. Follow Marko’s trail and move in between him and the encampment, and set up an ambush.

  Rakkan had the same thought, and had his warriors moving through the jungle at one hundred foot intervals, half a mile ahead of the civilians. She felt a little safer for it, but it didn’t mean that she was about to stop looking over her shoulder.

  A wave of excitement and relief swept down the line, and she figured that the tribe had reached the campsite. It would still be a fifteen minute walk for her - the caravan was nearly a mile long - but she was overjoyed to be seeing Marko soon. Just thinking about what she would tell him brought tears to her eyes. She hoped that he would forgive her for disappearing the night before, and that he would understand why she had chosen to act alone instead of alerting the tribe to the Alderoccan threat.

  When she finally arrived at the new campsite, she wasted no time in looking for Marko. He wasn’t anywhere to be found. She checked the dining hall to see if he was helping with the cooking. Checked the sleeping tent to see if he was helping them set it up. Checked the area where two musicians had started the night’s entertainment. He was nowhere.

  She started to panic, and paced around frantically looking for Kiran or Rakkan to ask if anyone had seen him.

  Then she saw a small crowd gathered off to the side. She saw Marko’s tall, lean frame in the center of it, and a smile took over her face. She ran over to the cluster and forced her way through to the center.

  Marko looked like he’d seen a ghost. He threw his arms around her and pulled her close.

  “I thought you left,” he cried.

  “No,” she said. “I couldn’t have.”

  “But you were gone.”

  “I saw the Watcher ships come in and went out to try and talk the commander down.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I didn’t want to waste any time. And what could you have done?”

  Marko weighed what she’d said for a moment.

  “It doesn’t matter. I’m glad you’re back.”

  He embraced her again, squeezing her tight and not letting go.

  “Can we find a place to sit and talk?” she asked. “There’s so much I want to tell you.”

  Marko frowned.

  “Actually, I’m about to head out. You’re welcome to come with me.”

  “Why?” she asked.

  “I found something. Something big.”

  “What?”

  “Come see for yourself.”

  They headed down a narrow trail. Naeesha slipped under Marko’s arm and walked with him, side by side. She was surprised and disappointed when the group came to a sudden stop after less than a half hour of walking and he dropped his arm from her shoulder. They spread out, and she moved to the front of the group to see what they had come to find.

  It was a gaping hole in the ground.

  “A sinkhole?”

  “That’s what I thought,” said Marko.

  “A cave?”

  “Another good guess. But no.”

  “What then?”

  Marko gestured towards a sloping pile of rubble that lead down into the darkness. Several of the Halians that had come with them produced military issued flashlights and a half dozen beams lit up the darkness. A heavy mist hung around the
hole in the ground, creating a tangled web of light inside the blackness.

  They climbed down the rubble pile and beneath the forest. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust. At first, it looked like any old cave. There were rocks scattered around on the ground, stalactites hanging from the ceiling, and calcified formations clinging to the walls. But upon closer inspection, she realized that the walls and floors and ceilings were smooth and straight.

  “It’s concrete,” she said, running her hand over a patch of bare wall. “Why is there an underground room in the middle of the jungle?”

  “I don’t know,” Marko said. “But it’s not a room.”

  “Not a room?”

  He shined his light into the darkness. The darkness swallowed it.

  “It’s a tunnel.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  “Where does it go?” Naeesha asked.

  “I don’t know. This is as far as I’ve gone.”

  She looked at Marko, looked at the other Halians, and looked into the darkness.

  “Well?” she asked.

  “Well what?”

  “Are we going to find out, or what?”

  That had been Marko’s plan. The tunnel was big. Even if it didn’t go anywhere, it could fit the entire tribe. They’d be underground. Safe. Maybe even from Alderoccan bombs, if it came to that.

  And if they did go somewhere, it could mean everything. The tunnels looked a lot like the one that they’d been through at the Dynasty compound. That fact made him equal parts nervous and hopeful.

  Hopeful because there was a chance that the tunnels could take them straight to the compound. His memory was fuzzy, but he thought that the team that scouted the compound nearly thirty years ago reported a complex network of underground tunnels that they were unable to explore completely. He couldn’t imagine why they would stretch as far as two hundred miles out, but then, nobody had ever been sure of what Dynasty was doing in the compound, so there was no ruling this out as a possibility.

  Of course, there was a real danger that the tunnels would take them several miles and lead nowhere. They could wind up setting their journey back by days, even weeks.

  But the thing that really scared him were the flashbacks to the last time he’d been in tunnels like this. It was the same shape, the same dimensions. There was the same crushing feeling of being surrounded by stone and soil. There was the same sense of the unknown stretching ahead of him, and this time, it was behind him too.

  He didn’t like it, not one bit.

  On the flip side, the risk was worth taking. They could move a lot faster through the tunnels than they could through the jungle, and they’d be a lot safer. Unless, of course, the military managed to pin them down inside. There would be no escape. No chance of survival.

  He wondered if it would be any better above ground.

  It still seemed like the tunnels were their best shot, for now, at least. But the decision wouldn’t be up to him or Rakkan or Jintak. They would have to go back to the tribe and take the issue to the circles. And the sooner, the better. If the tribe wanted to take to the tunnels, they would be wise to do so as soon as possible. Every minute that they were above ground was a minute that they were exposed and vulnerable.

  “What do you think?” Naeesha asked.

  “I don’t like it,” he said. “But it might just be the lesser of two evils.”

  “That’s how I feel,” Naeesha said. “What do you think the Halians will choose?”

  “We won’t know until we ask them.”

  The small exploratory team decided to take a quick look down the both sides of the tunnel to try and get a little more information. He and Naeesha decided to explore headed north, away from the compound. Rakkan went south.

  They planned on taking fifteen minutes. That way they’d be back at the camp in less than an hour. They could go straight to the circles, eat, make a decision, and be back underground as soon as possible. At least, if that’s what the tribe decided.

  There were no immediate clues waiting for them as they went down the tunnel. The darkness seemed to stretch infinitely forward in front of them. The walls were bare, unmarked, and unbroken. Aside from a little dirt, water, and foliage that must have come in through the hole behind them, the tunnels were immaculate.

  They smelled of old, stale dust, with just a hint of mildew. Not exactly pleasant, but a fair deal better than some of the barracks that Marko had stayed in during his time in the military.

  He and Naeesha kept moving forward. He counted his paces to mark the time, two steps to a second, one hundred and twenty steps to a minute. One thousand, eight hundred steps total. Then they’d turn around, walk back, and go back to camp to report their findings.

  After twelve-hundred steps, he and Naeesha still had nothing to report. They continued down the tunnel as though though they were out on a casual stroll. Naeesha kept quiet. She knew that Marko wasn’t the most illustrious counter in the world, as she often reminded him. Anyway, she didn’t want to do the job so she didn’t make it any harder for him.

  Their stroll came to a sudden stop when a faint and unidentifiable outline appeared against the wall of the tunnel.

  “What do you think it is?” Naeesha asked.

  “I think it’s creepy.”

  She gave him a look. He didn’t even need to see her to know it. He could just feel it. Braver than he ever was, she started down the hall, her light fixed on the crumpled shape. He could tell that she was still afraid. Her footsteps were slow and cautious. She assumed the low, hunched posture of someone who was ready to fly or fight, depending on what the situation called for. He followed beside her - well, beside her her and ever so slightly behind - and squinted as he tried to make the shape.

  The light glinted off something metallic. He recognized it as the brace of a plasma rifle. With that clue, he made out the shape of an Alderoccan combat helmet, and beneath it, the emaciated face of a Watcher.

  “Fuck,” Naeesha whispered as she kept moving towards it.

  The soldier had been dead for a long time. They’d been spared by the jungle’s scavengers, and looked to be in good condition except for the fact that they looked like a dehydrated flank steak.

  The body was sitting upright against the wall. Their rifle was laid across their lap. It looked almost like they were taking a nap, or waiting around for orders. As they drew closer, he saw that there was a little more to the soldier’s situation than that.

  “Where’s his arm?” Naeesha asked.

  “Not where it’s supposed to be.”

  He felt the glare again.

  “What the hell is he doing down here?”

  Marko didn’t have an answer to that question. He ran his light over the soldier’s desiccated body and saw some more clues as to his fate. There were dark patches of dried black blood, barely noticeable on the soldier’s camouflage fatigues. His uniform was torn open in a number of places. There was no saying what had done it, but whatever it was had been very sharp, very fast, or both.

  There was a dried pool of blood around the soldier, and Marko followed it down the hallway. It disappeared into the darkness, and he and Naeesha traded a nod and went after it.

  Their beams flitted around the hallway, looking for clues or warnings, any sign as to what fate had befallen the unfortunate soul. Something flashed in the darkness. They stepped closer, the beams of their lights trembling.

  It was a door. A heavy metal blast door, locked shut. The trail of blood disappeared behind it. They stood for a moment, looking at it, saying nothing.

  “Well,” Marko said, breaking the tense silence. “Whatever got him, it’s on the other side of that door.”

  “Does that make you feel any better?”

  “Not really.”

  “Why do you think there’s a door all the way down here?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe it’s a compartmentalization thing. They’ve got the tunnels set up so that they can lock down individual sections to contain a threat.�
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  If that was true, then there would be more doors. And Marko didn’t know if they’d be able to open them. If that was the case, hopefully they’d find out sooner rather than later. But that was getting ahead of themselves, and this new development in the mystery of the tunnel wasn’t likely to encourage anybody to come down here and take shelter.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Naeesha sat at the edge of the camp, waiting. She couldn’t stand the tension of sitting in the circles, not being able to understand what was being said. She felt more useful sitting here, standing guard.

  The Halians were not big on guards or patrols. They figured that those activities added up to more wasted life than the threat of violence posed. Naeesha thought about the number of hours she’d spent standing guard, and she figured they might have been on to something.

  Still, it made her feel better, just knowing that somebody was watching.

  A branch snapped behind her and she swiveled around to see Marko heading towards her.

  “It looks like we’re going down. Won’t know for sure until after dinner, but right now almost everybody thinks the tunnels are the safest bet.”

  “Good. I guess.”

  “Yea, I don’t know either.”

  “At least we won’t have to hack apart another twenty miles of jungle,” she said hopefully.

  Marko laughed.

  “Come on,” he said. “Let’s go get some dinner.”

  They ate well. Rakka’s tribe had good food, and more of it than they could carry. They’d scavenged and hunted while they moved from place to place, moving like a swarm through the forest instead of following a trail. It was riskier, but the benefits were sitting right in front of them.

  Kiran came over and sat with Naeesha and Marko, and while it filled her heart with joy to see the child again, she was a little disappointed that she wasn’t able to have a long overdue conversation with Marko.