A World To Return To by Shane Shepherd

Author:Shane Shepherd [Shepherd, Shane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-08-12T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Three

Win got to the dock in time. He quickly gazed around as he rushed to his spot at the front of the meeting party. Aya was with a team checking over the Beetle, a foot inside it, ready to board. Soldiers were gathering around and standing in their formations; the rest of the meeting party aside from Win was basically a Spec Ops team, Hiroshi, and Mackintosh, who stood behind Win as a prisoner. It was a show of strength that they didn’t need to lock her up to control her, and also practical, as they wouldn’t need to restrain an ally.

Though Mackintosh had said immediately, Win was still surprised by how quickly the shuttle arrived. People had barely got into their positions when the port doors were opening to let the Spider shuttle in.

It was even more menacing than Win remembered.

It was huge and dark and so obviously alien that Win almost shuddered at the sight of it inside their base. It was more visible in here than out in the dark universe, and Win could see that it moved as if through water, fluid and light. It was fit to accommodate teams of two Spiders, but it was easily three times as large as the Beetle.

It landed right in front of Win.

They waited… but the Spiders did not step out.

The shuttle lifted to reveal its belly shining with colors. It was a greeting, which Win recognized without needing the UniCom he had brought with him. He greeted them back—and so did Mackintosh, lifting her palms.

The shuttle formed the symbol they’d set for the Shapeshifter—the white eye—almost mockingly. Then, after a moment, did something new: showed two symbols for the Shapeshifter side by side.

And they still hadn’t stepped out of the shuttle.

The background behind the white eyes turned red with fury.

“The second shifter,” Win realized. “They’re asking where it is.”

The shuttle quickly abandoned their simple code and shone with their complicated colors to talk to Mackintosh.

“They demand to know where the second transformed crewmember is,” Mackintosh said. “Were there more failures? Did you not keep your word and kill it?”

“The second shifter wasn’t part of what we negotiated!” Win argued, quickly drawing the same message to show the Spiders. The matter of the second shifter wasn’t important—what they needed was to get the Spiders out of the shuttle!

Something stirred in Win’s brain. He quickly thought up a plan.

What if it goes feral or works against us like it’s happened before? Win asked the Spiders. We don’t want to poke that thing or move it around. You can have it! …if you go get it yourselves.

He knew this was stupid—if he was so afraid the infected crewmember would work against them, why invite the Spiders into their ship as a solution? But the Spiders didn’t think highly of either humans or negotiating, and, saying Win was stupid to allow them to walk in and destroy their base, they agreed.

They stepped out of the shuttle.

Win squeezed his eyes shut.

Even with

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