My na is Adam Samson, the lone human aboard the Specialty Resource and Research Vessel The Radiance. A few months—or a couple Imperial cycles ago, depending on your tric, I was just a regular human who’d suffered so bad PTSD, had a ntal breakdown, and moved back ho with my grandparents. Then, I t an alien, and my life completely changed.
Life aboard The Radiance was surprisingly simple; I had a well-paying job, food and housing were provided, and I didn’t need to worry about transportation ever. The spacefaring vessel was large—large enough to comfortably house over 300 crew mbers and hold dozens of research and recreational facilities, but it wasn’t so large I had to concern myself with a daily commute; it was maybe the size of a very small town—or a massive cruise ship.
They ghosted away from earth and trained up for a job only I could do; be the handler of a wildly dangerous alien lifeform genetically engineered to be the perfect lifeform. The mission aboard The Radiance was to find all the other escaped Predazoans with help from the only Predazoan that wasn’t a danger to us all, my little Evie.
Eve and I had an interesting relationship dynamic that’s for sure; sotis she seed like my pet, other tis almost like a daughter, but then every once in a while she showed herself wildly alien, and I really had no idea what to make of it. She was one of the most dangerous creatures in the universe, but I trusted her completely—she was actually surprisingly gentle with .
I’d been given my own private crew quarters, but honestly I hardly spent any ti there. When I was free of any duties or training, I was usually hanging around Eve’s containnt cell she was housed in for security reasons. Thankfully, they made it much more habitable, with a TV, a couch, a bed, and so other furnishings I’d requested to make it look less like a prison. The Radiance gathered all kinds of data on humanity while they’d been in orbit spying on us, including exabytes of downloaded dia, allowing us access to pretty much every piece of human entertainnt in existence. I spent most of my nights down there with little Evie—she was quite clingy and enjoyed watching earth shows and movies with snuggled up on the couch together.
It was almost like a mini-vacation between classes and training, but of course it couldn’t last forever, and once my training was considered complete, it was ti to start our mission hunting down the next Predazoan.
Little Evie lounged in my lap on the couch in her containnt cell watching so earth ani from the fancy floating TV they’d provided us, when suddenly the cargo bay doors to the cell opened, and I saw Doctor Gorgam flanked by a few clandestine agents waiting for .
“We’re going to have a mission briefing in the command center; your presence is required.” The green and red frog-man alien said to , careful to stay behind the repulser field that kept Eve secure in the containnt cell. The researchers didn’t think Eve was a danger anymore, but they were still quite nervous to be around her without protection—they’d seen what she was capable of.
For that matter, so did I, but I wasn’t scared of her.
I sighed and stood up from the couch, passing the remote off to Evie—who trilled angrily in her musical, gibberish language. She still always remained in the little goth-girl squid-princess form; I think she knew how cute I thought she looked like that. She could surely change her shape to be anything she wanted now with all the human biomass she’d consud, but I think she was simply more comfortable in that form. Thɪs chapter is updated by NoveIＦire
I patted Evie’s head, and her trills died down as she nuzzled her head up into my hand, “Gotta get to work Evie—pay the bills, you understand.”
Evie fixed with a flat glare with her big, adorable glowing yellow eyes, and then sunk deeper into the couch with an obvious pout. I just rolled my eyes and walked off towards the good doctor.
The research team had a few briefings over the last few days, trying to decide the next Predazoan to hunt down; I skipped out on most of those etings, as their debates and reasoning usually went over my head. I might have a close bond with Evie, but I hardly knew anything about the Predazoans—or at least about the crazy science behind their creation.
I got to the doorway and Gorgam was quick to open the forcefield and then reactivated it once I was safely through. “We finally have a heading?” I asked.
Gorgam nodded, “Yes, we’ve decided which Predazoan to hunt next.”
I turned to wave at Evie one last ti as we left, and she just turned away in a cute little huff, getting a quiet chuckle from . I turned back to the doctor and the agents escorting us out into the hallway. “Is it a matter of going after a specific Predazoan, or more about location?”
The hallways of The Radiance reminded of a ritzy cruise ship—the entire vessel was like a fancy, futuristic ocean-liner. The walkways were all matte black, frad in white, surrounded by walls and ceilings of rounded chro. There was plenty of room to walk around, I never felt crowded anywhere I went through the vessel. It was so big, it was surprisingly easy to get lost.
Doctor Gorgam nodded along, “Location is the primary concern—a high population world is at great risk from a Predazoan. We also think it’s best to start off hunting a Gamma generation Predazoan for your first ti in the field. It will be by no ans easy, but Alpha-03 is overall much more dangerous than any Beta or Gamma Predazoan.”
I’d been to the command center a few tis before; it looked like an assembly or even a lecture hall, with raised rows for seating, all facing a large, circular computer screen on the floor that projected holograms above it. There were over 40 people in the regular seats—a good number I recognized now—with six raised seats opposite them, the command council, as it were. Gorgam gave a quick nod before taking his place with the command council, and I turned to find a seat in the general audience. Right away, Doctor Tillia—the gorgeous red devil alien I’d befriended—waved enthusiastically after , indicating the seat next to her. I made my way up top to join her.
“Finally, the big day’s here.” She said eagerly, flashing a brilliant smile.
“How’s the atmosphere? People hopeful? Do they believe Evie will be an asset?”
Tillia rolled her eyes, “It’s annoyingly divided between military and research right now; the research teams trust the bond between you and Alpha-03—I an Eve.” She corrected quickly. I’d been harping on people to start calling Evie by her na rather than her clinical designation, “We’re the ones who’ve done the testing and see how she obeys you. But the soldiers and agents are still wildly resistant to the idea of following our lead.”
“Like, my lead, Evie’s lead, or the research team’s lead?”
Doctor Tillia giggled in that enticing way of hers, “All of the above, really. They want to head in guns blazing—or continue their spy ga like they have been. They hate the idea of handing the reigns over to us. I think they’d just assu bombard any host planets with an orbital strike.”
My eyes grew wide, “We could do that?”
She waved it off quickly, “Oh no, not The Radiance itself; we’re a stealth and research vessel. Doesn’t an those clandestine agents couldn’t call in so favors and make it happen though.”
I shook my head, looking around to see more agents and soldiers than researchers around us—and they thought Evie was dangerous.
A few more people filtered in—including my friend, Doctor Zyno, a classic green man kind of alien, who smiled apologetically as he made his way up to sit beside . He looked down at the simple band on his wrist that automatically displayed a holographic clock when he looked at it, “One minute to spare.”
I rolled my eyes, “Poor ti managent exists amongst aliens too, eh?”
Zyno smirked, “I keep telling you, since humanity hasn’t joined the Empire yet, you’re the alien.”
“Alright, let’s get this briefing underway.” Clandestine Commander Durgo said from his seat at the command council. He was one of the main people in charge of the military side of things, specifically all the spy stuff. He looked like a large blue beetle with layers of plating over his face, four red slits for eyes, and a triangular black mask over his mouth that worked as so kind of voice modulator. He was bald but had a large horn that curved upwards about a foot at the top of his forehead. To his left was Doctor Gorgam, Doctor Wit, and Doctor Kianna. To the commander’s right was Captain Seash, a red lizardman alien who commanded the marines. Beside the lizardman was Captain Quinna who commanded the power armor soldiers—the heavy guns. Captain Quinna was a massive woman who looked like a humanoid tree—she was a sentient plant kind of alien, as strange as that might seem. The soldiers wore their military dress uniforms, with black and gold jackets, while the researchers wore their black and white lab coats—making the divide between the two groups even more obvious. I myself wore my black tactical pants and a black t-shirt made of so crazy comfortable futuristic material that seed like armored silk—my appearance different from everyone else, another thing to make stand out by myself.
Captain Seash leaned forward as he tapped at the console in front of him, and a large hologram of a planet blinked into existence before the assembly, “Imperial core world Entana has been confird to house the Predazoan Gamma-17; from our tracking after the destruction of planetoid research facility NX-947b, we believe she arrived approximately six cycles ago.”
“We’re sure Gamma-17 is on planet? Last we knew, we only got energy readings within Entana’s solar system.” A researcher asked.
Commander Durgo nodded, “My agents have confird she made it to the planet; there was a string of mysterious disappearances five to six cycles ago. The local authorities never determined the perpetrator, no bodies or remains found—no declared homicides.”
“It’s believed Gamma-17 was desperate to consu biomass before she could establish proper camouflage capabilities, it’s why the disappearances were so localized initially.” Doctor Wit added.
Tillia raised her hand, “Initially? Does that an there’s been more disappearances?”
Commander Durgo nodded again, “Yes, but the authorities haven’t connected them with the initial spree. We believe Gamma-17 is being much more careful in acquiring more biomass and has been moving around a lot, travelling from city to city, only taking a few people every couple of days before moving on.”
I still didn’t know why the Predazoans were so focused on consuming more biomass. The way the researchers explained it, they could absorb and assimilate any organic matter into themselves, and they would improve and even perfect it. But I asked, to what end? If they were supposedly perfect lifeforms already, why did they need to absorb more biomass as though they were trying to perfect themselves? Evie didn’t seem to care about absorbing anymore biomass; she liked eating food because she enjoyed it, not because she was trying to perfect herself or anything. But of course, Evie was different from all the other Predazoans; she wasn’t focused on so crazy, instinctual drive for supremacy over all other lifeforms. Maybe that’s all it was for the other Predazoans—driven by pure instinct to kill and consu. It made them dangerous; it was why they needed to be contained or killed—the reason for our entire mission.
A glowing red line on the hologram planet indicated where the disappearances took place, and Commander Durggo gestured to a large area the line lead towards, “We believe we can intercept Gamma-17 here; we’re not sure if it was on purpose, but she’s slowly made her way to the capital city Tantalltera, the most densely populated city on the entire planet.”
“We also believe she would be more inclined to stay there longer, consuming more biomass and maybe even establish a permanent nest for herself.” Doctor Kianna added.
“Nest? Is the damn thing going to propagate?” A soldier called out quickly, causing muttering to stir within the assembly.
Doctor Gorgam waved his hands down to reign in silence, “Our simulations indicate they don’t possess the ability to produce more Predazoans, but their drive for control and supremacy lead us to believe they might seek to…control local populations.”
“aning?”
Gorgam steepled his hands together, “Rember, they exist as singular entity hiveminds; each individual cell is almost like its own body controlled within the Predazoan. We believe once they achieve significant biomass, they will seek to expand their hivemind to other creatures—assimilate living organisms, rather than kill and consu.” He clarified.
If the good doctor had been trying to calm or reassure anyone, he did a piss poor job of it as concerned rumblings swept through the audience.
“What, so we’re going to deal with zombie outbreaks eventually?” I asked.
“Those are re speculations; we have no idea what instinct actually drives the Predazoans—what their end-goal is after accumulating significant biomass.” Doctor Wit added.
“What other speculations are there?” A marine asked, and I could see beside Tillia and Zyno exchanged a worried glance.
“We believe the lifecycle of the Predazoans is as follows…” Doctor Killia started, and the planet hologram changed to show a Predazoan in its earliest stage—a little squid-orb with tentacles. “Stage one, accumulate biomass—kill and consu.” The hologram changed to look large and humanoid, “Stage two, assimilate and control local living organisms. Stage three, final rger.” The hologram shifted into a massive sphere, looking like a planet, “They take all the biomass and all their assimilated organisms and rge with the entire planet—beco a living biomass planet.”
For everyone except the research team, this was news to them, and they promptly broke out in heated discussions of how they should all just start glassing planets hosting any Predazoans.
“Is that true?” I asked Tillia beside .
She let out a quick sigh, “It’s only Kianna’s projections based on her behavioral studies; we have no way to confirm the Predazoan instinct.”
“Although, from the original sample of the ancient Predazoan discovered on the deep space asteroid, it was believed it co from so kind of organic planet—that’s where Kianna’s theory stems from.” Zyno added.
“So the ancient Predazoans did the sa thing—take over and turn into planets?” I asked.
Tillia shook her head, “We honestly have no idea; so research indicates the ancient Predazoans were living planets, but the cloned Predazoans have been significantly altered and are more than likely drastically different than their progenitors.”
“Maybe the new Predazoan’s goal is to achieve their original form—beco the living planet they were always ant to be. You lot baked them up in a lab to make it so they could turn any planet into their new true form.” I reasoned, “Maybe even eventually assimilate multiple planets together.”
Doctor Tillia placed a hand on my shoulder and looked in my eyes, “Adam, that’s all just speculation; we really have no way of knowing what the ancient Predazoans were beyond the myths and legends we’ve collected, just the sa we have no way of knowing what drives the new Predazoans. For all we know, they just want to consu and grow their hiveminds as re gluttons.”
Looking in Tillia’s eyes, I could see she was trying to convince herself as much as . It made realized how desperate the researchers were to contain this monuntal fuck-up they all created; the researchers were probably more scared of the Predazoans than anyone else, knowing much more of what they were capable of. Plus, it probably wasn’t just a job for them like it would be for the soldiers; there was guilt there, and sha—they needed to fix their mistakes.
I put a hand on her back and smiled, “Well, we just have to make sure we round up all the loose Predazoans before we can even discover their instinctual drive.” I offered, and I saw her imdiately calm and relax into my touch.
Doctor Zyno chuckled beside , “Easier said than done…”
“If you’re all quite finished!” Captain Seash snapped, finally reigning in the chaos of the eting, “It doesn’t matter what their goal, what their instinct, or what their drive is. I don’t care if they want to eat the whole planet or turn themselves into one, our entire mission is to capture, contain, or kill all the Predazoans who escaped into Imperial space—with minimal casualties.” He pressed, staring down the few soldiers who suggested destroying Predazoan worlds. “Our job is working in the shadows, and we’ll continue to live in the shadows as we sweep through the worlds, leaving the Imperial Citizens none the wiser.”
“That’s all well and good, but how can we be stealthy and fight against monsters who can eat entire planets?” A marine demanded, “Wouldn’t it take a great martial force to destroy one of these things?”
Doctor Gorgam held up a froggy hand, “Stealth actually works much better against the Predazoans anyway. Talking about glassing a planet, I should hope you all read the research materials provided; the only way to kill a Predazoan is with the destabilizing acid. So, we send a small team down to the planet, investigate the disappearances, follow the trail and find the nest, and once we have Gamma-17 in our sights, we make an initial effort to contain, and should that fail or lead to potential civilian casualties, we administer the acid to her core.”
And that’s where I co in—the investigation part. The Predazoan camouflage was too sophisticated for any of their scans or sensors, so it would be up to and Eve to help locate Gamma-17. I could see a few eyes on when the doctor said that—hardened marines and soldiers relying on this random human bonded to a dangerous Predazoan to lead them to their target, who was also a dangerous Predazoan. For the first ti, I really felt the weight of that responsibility.
For the rest of the mission briefing, I kind of tuned out; they continued talking logistics, gear, staging, drop points, communications codes, check-ins, all things the marines and agents would need to be aware of to maintain the safety of the investigation crew. For my side of things, there wasn’t much we could do to plan; I was to command Eve to get us any possible advantage in finding Gamma-17. There’d be a lot of reconnaissance with the soldiers, lots of fieldwork from the researchers, and then there’d just be Eve and tagging along, trying to direct them if we could. To be honest, I actually had no idea if we’d even be much use—didn’t know if Eve would listen to in finding another Pradazoan, and even if she did, how would she locate them if they had such perfect camouflage?
No sense borrowing trouble; we could deal with all that once we were planet-side.
***
After the briefing, I grabbed so dinner with my friends, then headed back to Evie’s containnt cell with a bagful of synthesized chocolates. I knew if I was to take Eve on the mission, I would need plenty of bribery for her to actually obey .
It wasn’t like Eve misbehaved or anything, she was just wildly playful; she listened to when I got serious, but sotis it would take a few commands before she obeyed. She was like a mischievous little kid, and the funny thing was I knew she understood now; before back on earth, we weren’t sure what all she understood from us. But after consuming all that human biomass from the governnt agents who attacked us, I could see a new…intelligence in her eyes—a distinct understanding. Odd as it might seem, I think she was trying to hide it from ; I rembered the researchers told Predazoans could be smarter than super computers, but Eve certainly didn’t act like that. Sotis I wondered if she played dumb since her new intelligence ca from killing and consuming humans; maybe she was ashad of what she’d done or was afraid I’d be afraid if she showed off her newfound intelligence. Or maybe I was just way off-base, and her new understanding didn’t correlate to human intelligence. Maybe she really was just a smart kind of dumb animal.
It didn’t matter though—smart, dumb, or anything in between, I still love my little alien, and even though she was a thousand tis more deadly and dangerous than I was, I felt weirdly protective over.
I made it to back to her containnt cell and opened the cargo door, and I could see her brighten up on the couch when she saw , but she turned away in a huff again, pretending to be mad. I opened the repulser forcefield and closed it behind as I went to her on the couch. Imdiately, she snuggled into my lap when I sat down, but still looked away from with her arms crossed.
I decided to tease her a little, “You know Evie, it hurts my feelings when you give the cold shoulder like that. Makes feel like you don’t love after all…” I said sadly, trying to sell the bit.
Evie turned back to as though she’d been zapped, her glowing yellow eyes bright with worry. She flung her arms around and wrapped a dozen tentacles around too, and then started trilling apologetic gibberish at , nuzzling her head into my chest.
I just laughed and pulled her tighter against , “I’m just kidding Evie, I know you love .”
Eve stopped her trilling and looked at with an adorable angry expression, her cheeks all puffed out like she was holding in a scream. I laughed again and kissed her forehead, then settled into the couch and pulled her up against , “And I love you too, sweet-thing, never forget that.”
Magnanimous as always, Eve huffed out a quick sigh and let it all go, then settled herself against .
I decided I didn’t want to talk about the mission yet; we’d be opening a warp channel tomorrow and heading through void space and would arrive at Entana in just a few days. We had ti—didn’t need to get all serious yet.
I was content to snuggle with my deadly little alien and watch earth TV with her on the couch for now. All the doom and gloom could co later.
User Comments
0 comments from readers