Alien Freak - Calista Skye Page 0,47
black.
I gasp. “Zaroc?” I fumble for him.
“Right here,” he says and takes my hand. “Not leaving you.”
“Did you turn the light off?”
“Not knowingly. But I have a feeling it went out because of me.”
I try to find the jumpsuit with my other hand. “Are we in danger?”
“Not yet. I smell nobody close, and there’s nothing with a heat signature anywhere.”
I locate the pieces of my jumpsuit and clumsily put it on. I have no idea where the bra went, but right now I don’t care too much.
A white light comes on in the distance.
“Ah,” Zaroc says. “I thought that was something important.”
The white orb that hovers in the center of the shell is illuminated from the inside.
I’m not sure I like the looks of it. “That has to be for us, right? Meaning ‘come here’?”
“That is also the way I would understand it,” Zaroc agrees, lifting the weapon he picked up earlier. “And I think we would be smart to follow those instructions.”
“Yeah.”
We start walking towards the center. It’s still pretty dark in here, and I find myself stumbling over several of the exhibits before Zaroc grabs my hand and leads me after him. I guess his eyesight is better.
As we approach the orb, I see that it is in fact hovering. There’s nothing underneath it except the floor, and if it hangs by strings, then they’re totally invisible.
We stop thirty feet away. The orb is the size of a bus, perfectly spherical and seemingly both bright white and translucent at the same time, radiating soft light. The surface has absolutely no features, not the tiniest spot or crack. It could be spinning wildly for all I know.
“Well, here we are,” Zaroc says loudly. “We come as called.”
The orb goes dark.
“Oh my,” I whisper, getting a feeling that can’t be good.
Then it lights up again in blue and white and brown and a little bit of green in an intricate, but familiar pattern.
It takes me a moment to realize what I’m looking at.
“The Earth!” I gasp.
“... the Earth…” a distant voice says, coming from nowhere in particular.
I grab Zaroc’s forearm, just for safety’s sake. “That’s my home planet,” I hiss. “See?”
“A lot of planets look like that,” he says, frowning. “I don’t think I’d recognize it.”
No, this I have to record for the not-viewers. I take the phone out and start filming, holding it as discreetly as possible.
“... Averie’s home planet...“ The voice is distant and thin, slow and airy like a breeze that rises and falls.
I clear my voice. “You know my name?”
“... affirmative…”
The voice seems to come from everywhere at the same time. I can’t place it. But since the orb is the only thing lit up, I assume it comes from there one way or the other.
“How do you know my name?”
“... from Earth…”
“You come from Earth?”
“... negative…”
“I come from Earth?”
“... affirmative....”
I look at Zaroc and shrug. I have no idea what’s going on. But I think it might be important.
“You know my name and that I come from Earth,” I recap. “Is that why you let me in?”
“... Averie... Earth... special…”
I get the feeling that whoever is speaking to us only does so with great difficulty. It’s a neutral and very understandable Interspeech. It seems to come from very far away, as from another world or even dimension. There’s no static or other interference, it’s just distant, strained.
“Is it difficult for you to speak to us like this?”
“... difficult…”
“Can we do anything to make it easier for you?”
“... negative…”
“Are you… are you an Elder?”
“... unknown term…”
“Who are you?”
“... Verv…”
“That’s the name of this moon,” Zaroc says. “Is the moon alive, then?”
There’s no reply.
I shrug, not at all sure what to ask or say. So I’ll just take a stab in the dark. “Verv, if I understand you right, Earth is special. Are you aware that Earth has been invaded by the Bululg?”
“... this is known…”
“Will you help us get rid of them so Earth can be free again?”
“... certain things... must be made to happen…”
“What kind of things?”
“... Earth must resist… Averie must resist…” The voice is growing weaker, more distant.
“We must resist the Bululg? How?”
“... moon…”
I look around the darkness. “This moon?”
The orb grows darker, and for a moment I think the entity I’m talking to has left. Then I see that the bright Earth has been changed to a dark gray ball, pockmarked with craters.
“Oh. Earth’s Moon.”
“... affirmative…”
“Something about the Moon? What? What do I do?”
“... will become apparent… now leave… no more time…