'Sacmis' (formerly 'Alien Abduction')

Chapter 40: Stranded

From the ship’s bridge the three women watched in terror as the sandstorm rolled across the plain.

 It was huge, an irregular circle of whirling sand almost a kilometre wide and towering to a height of at least 500 metres. At full magnification on one of the screens, they could make out the small wedge-shape that was the shuttle. Across the plain, moving over the top of the rocky outcrop, they could also make out two other bright shapes that were Matias and Kate, but it was impossible to tell who was who.

“Will the shuttle be damaged?” asked Gemma.

“It should be fine,” said Irvn, reassuringly. “And in a worse case scenario we can always rescue them in the second shuttle. The important thing is for them to take shelter until the storm passes over.”

Even as he said this, the storm rolled over the small spacecraft and it disappeared from view beneath boiling clouds of red sand. Other screens showed shaky views from the helmet cameras of Matias and Kate as they moved as quickly as they dared down the slope. The three aliens on the bridge were talking rapidly to each other and to Matias, but Matias’ voice was becoming increasingly broken up by static, as were the pictures from their helmet cameras.

“Electrical interference from the storm,” muttered Cymon.

“Oh no,” said Laura quietly.

Kate and Matias had reached the bottom of the slope but the front of the dust storm was barely 200 metres away and even seemed to be accelerating. The pictures on the bridge screens were now beginning to break up badly, but they could just make out the two silvery figures turning their backs to the storm and heading for the far side. Just before they disappeared from view, the storm hit, instantly hiding the entire outcrop from sight - and Kate and Matias with it. A brief glimpse from the two helmet cameras showed roaring sand particles immediately replaced by red darkness as the storm blocked out almost all light. They heard what might have been a short scream from Kate, then all sound cut off abruptly and the screens displaying the feeds from the helmet cameras went blank.

“Please God let them be alright.” said Amisha taking hold of Laura’s hand.

 The view from the ship’s camera continued to flicker and distort, every so often showing a stable image that came and went, showing nothing but a top view of the storm which to their dismay seemed no longer to be moving but had come to a halt, twisting and whirling like a stationary tornado.

“Do something,” said Gemma to the three aliens, realising as she said it how stupid that must sound.”

“For the moment, there is nothing we can do,” replied Cymon. “We just have to wait for the storm to subside.”

“They have more than an hour’s oxygen left, more than enough to get back to the shuttle.”

“And what if the shuttle’s been damaged,” said Laura, “What then?”

“We take the other shuttle and pick them up,” said Teo.

Laura was about to add something else when - suddenly - a massive jolt sent her and the three other women reeling sideways. The entire ship seemed to shudder and tilt, the artificial gravity fluctuating wildly so that for brief moments they felt weightless. Teo fell from his chair to the deck as Cymon and Irvn clung desperately to their consoles. The three women held on to anything they could grab. Red lights flashed urgently on all the bridge displays accompanied by a shrill alarm. Somehow the three women kept their footing. Slowly, as the aliens fought with the controls, the ship began to stabilise. Irvn punched a button and the alarm fell silent.

“What was that?” said Gemma, her voice pitched high from fear.

“I believe we have just been fired on,” said Teo grimly. “A near miss.”

“Fired on? By what? By who?” shouted Amisha.

“Another ship,” said Cymon quietly. “I’m picking up another ship nearby.” He adjusted his controls and the star field displayed on one of the bridge’s main screens whirled rapidly then settled on a different sector of space. Among the blaze of stars was one that looked much larger and shone more brightly. Cymon adjusted the magnification and it sprang into clear detail.

It was no star, but a ship exactly like theirs, unmistakable from the long cylindrical core and the two wheels that revolved around it.

“Our worst fears,” said Teo quietly.

“What are you saying?” said Gemma, although the answer was all too obvious.

“It’s another of our ships,” said Irvn, “it must - somehow - have tracked us.”

“What are you going to do?” asked Amisha.

Ignoring her question, the three aliens spoke rapidly to each other in their own language.

Laura was about to repeat the question when one of the bridge screens flickered and settled. All three women jumped as a head-and-shoulders image of another alien appeared, seeming to stare directly at them. A moment later they realised that this one looked different from the four they knew in a way they couldn’t immediately identify. It had the same features, same smooth hairless head, the same reflective bronze skin colour, but a rounder, softer, slimmer profile with even larger eyes and the unmistakeable outline of breasts beneath the black coveralls.

“It’s a woman,” gasped Amisha.

© Adriana Nicolas 2014