Spears of Uu'kata

Chapter 67 - Protoporos

Rose's hair was a mess and her feet hurt from a long day of working in the commissary and all she wanted was to get her son from his daycare and get home so she could give him the gift she'd pulled extra shifts to purchase for him.

Christmas music played everywhere and was giving her a headache and she wondered why, in hundreds and hundreds of years. no one had bothered to write some new tunes for the holiday. Why did they still sing about dashing through snow, when people on distant moons, stations, and asteroids had never seen snow before and probably never would? And what even was a sleigh?

The sudden silence was so awkward that, for a moment, she wondered if her ears needed to pop, until a loud, crackling static sound filled the air.

She cringed and looked at the nearest display just as the emergency flashers started strobing.

Her chest clenched, dread dropping into her belly.

The nearest display went black, then a terrifying creature was looking out at her with metallic eyes and horrific tusks jutting from its mouth.

"Humans of Cosmo, Oasis, Sierra," the creature rumbled in a voice that vibrated through her ribs. "I am Helkta Ahnekk of clan Kothos. I am Uu'k'asht, and I have taken your children."

"What the... is this live?" someone asked.

"What did he just say?"

The creature stepped back and moved aside to show a cluster of terrified kids huddled on cushions in some kind of stone room.

Rose gasped, surging forward and pressing her hands to the display as though she could grab her boy right through the screen.

"Kyle!" she cried out, panic squeezing her chest down tight.

The creature moved back into the picture, covering the children, and said, "The commissaries will have gateways where you may come to be reunited with your young ones. Come immediately. In two hours, Cosmo Oasis Sierra will be destroyed."

The picture cut out, and was replaced with footage of children of all ages, of elderly and infirm and terrified nurses, and security officers, bound and gagged.

Rose gasped again and covered her mouth.

The commissaries. He'd said to come to the commissaries.

She didn't think. At once, she was running toward the commissary she'd just left. She burst through the door to find that one wall was simply gone, replaced by an impossible opening and guarded by two huge, terrifying beings with dark gray skin and fierce eyes.

Tears dripped down her cheeks as Rose, hands pressed to her chest, took a step forward, toward the aliens who watched her.

"K-Kyle!" she cried out, looking through the gate. She couldn't see him.

"Where's my son?" she demanded.

One of the beings just jerked his head, indicating the gate.

Mouth dry, she took a step forward, then another.

The doors slid open behind her and more parents piled in, pulling up short upon being faced with two huge aliens.

Rose took a breath and gritted her teeth. Her son was in there somewhere.

Her feet moved with a mind of their own and charged through the gate, only to feel an impossible weight bear her to the ground.

She gasped and stumbled, falling to her knees with a cry, eyes wide and darting.

"Mom!"

"Oh, my God! Kyle!" she cried, suddenly seeing her boy running at her, his little legs working harder than usual.