Alien Evolution by James David Victor

Author:James David Victor [Victor, James David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fairfield Publishing
Published: 2018-07-17T16:00:00+00:00

“Now what!?” Eliard snarled at the empty corridor that was starting to tilt. He struggled to maintain his balance. “Can’t a guy loot an abandoned station and make some money in peace anymore?”

“Boss…” Irie said reproachfully, following him out the bulkhead, but looking back at the sprawled form of the house agent on the table behind them.

“Get moving! We got what we came for!” Eliard barked. His tone was such that, when Val and Irie shared a look behind his back, they knew that the captain would not brook any further argument. They had only ever seen him like this rarely, and it was usually before he did something either impossibly brave, or obscenely stupid.

But as soon as the crew of the Mercury Blade stepped out into the corridor, their concerns were momentarily eclipsed by a strange sight.

The entire corridor was moving.

No, it wasn’t the corridor that was moving, Eliard thought as his eyes tracked another ripple that spread its way along the floors and walls, like a pulse. It was the patches of the blue-scale lichen. They twitched and fluttered, spreading out in ripples of force like it was deep underwater.

“What’s happening to it?” Eliard said in alarm, making sure that he didn’t step on the strange stuff as he walked.

“It seems to be reacting to something, but…” Irie shook her head. Whatever this was, it was beyond her mechanical know-how.

Eliard scowled and kept moving. He wasn’t going to allow some alien space virus to stop him from completing this mission. He had taken almost two steps when something boomed far away against the hull, and the entire station rocked. The lights flickered overhead, turning from the dimmed white-blue to a flashing orange.

“That’s an emergency light. This place is under attack.”

“The raiders?” Irie wondered aloud.

“No idea. But somehow, they managed to see this place, underneath that invisibility shield,” Eliard croaked, picking up his pace as he rounded the curve in the tunnel.

BOOM! The tunnel shook once more, and this time, he saw the ripple of the lichen spreading away from the noise. Maybe that was all it was, a reaction to sound?

“Gah!” Irie shouted in shock and fear behind him. He spun around to see that one of her boots had gotten stuck in the blue-scale lichen, which had somehow morphed in moments to a large, plant-like growth, wrapping blue-green vines around her ankle. “Get this thing off me!” she screamed. Val stepped forward, snatching her bodily and pulling her up into the air. The Duergar was a near seven-foot-tall, solid mass of muscle and he was easily strong enough to pick up the diminutive, compact engineer, but, with a fair degree of horror, Eliard saw that the alien-like vines weren’t giving up on their prey. They stretched and unraveled, blue-scale plates fracturing and bursting as the stringy growths were pulled from their alien habitat.

“Watch out!” Eliard reacted, raising the strange bone scepter with the intention of firing it. The thing sensed his actions and unfolded itself into its far larger, forearm-encompassing cannon.

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