Chapter No.45. Abomination.

After being wounded and rescued by Kali, I came to the inevitable conclusion that she was definitely my second in command. She had proven her mettle in combat and in the fact that she didn't panic. I also liked her more mature attitude.

The other women didn't object to my de facto command choice. In fact, they seemed satisfied with it.

Kali was right about the wound. It completely healed after a week. Some of it could be attributed to the auto-doctor treatment, but much of it is a product of the hyperspace effect.

As was our morning custom, we gathered at the command station with our coffee to see what Janet and Sharon had discovered.

"We're approximately two hundred light years away from what we believe is the Lizard alien's planet," Janet said. "It's a larger Earth sized planet orbiting a M-class red dwarf star."

"Interesting," I said after rubbing my jaw. "How far are we from Earth?"

"Approximately three hundred light years."

I chuckled. "We've been worming our way around to eventually return to Earth."

"Yes," she said. "The Earth-like habitable planets we've explored have been death traps."

"If we do arrive at the Lizard alien planet, they may take it as an aggressive move," Sharon said.

"Maybe, but I think they know what happened to the humans."

"They probably gathered them up as a food source."

I thought about it for a moment. "Yes, I had the same suspicion, but I don't think something like that could have happened without a fight." I smiled. "In any event, we may as well enter the demon's lair and pay the price to go across the river Styx."

They looked at me as if I had gone bonkers.

"It's a reference to the ancient concept of the afterlife," I told them with a smile.

They didn't think it was funny.

We entered hyperspace that evening, a voyage in time suspension that would last two days. I chose to keep a low profile by spending time on the engineering deck.

Kali had the same idea. "Do you think we'll come under fire when we approach the Lizard alien planet?"

"I don't think so. They already know that we're not a threat to their superior technology."

"Won't they be suspicious about why we're there?"

"I suppose, but I'm convinced that they know where the humans went."

"What difference does it make where they went?" she asked. "We're so far in the future no one on Earth will care."

"I agree, but if some alien species is responsible for removing billions of humans, there is the possibility that they could do it again."

"Even if they would, what could we do to stop it?"

"I believe the Greys could do that."

"Why should we trust them? They may be just as evil as the Lizard aliens."

"True, but we'll know more when we get to the Lizard alien's planet."

I could understand her reservations about approaching the Lizard alien planet, but it is the only way to find out what happened.

We came out of hyperspace and allowed COMA to make the burn that would put us into orbit around the Lizard alien planet.

At a million kilometers away, Janet and Sharon were able to get some hard data.

"The planet doesn't look all that good," Sharon said. "It has splotchy dark areas all over it."

"That seems odd considering that the planet is supposedly a desert world," Janet said.

"Any signs of vessels?" I asked.

"None," Janet said. "I'm not seeing any activity at all."

I turned to Natale. "Any communication pings?"

"None, sir. I'm not detecting any electromagnetic or quantum signals."

"This is really weird."

"Maybe this isn't the Lizard alien home world," Kali said.

"I think it is. It's the result of our trace of their ship when it went away from us."

I turned to Janet. "When will we be in orbit?"

"Ah . . . about two hours, sir."

I stood up. "Let me know if anything moves on that planet."

"We will, sir."

Kali followed me to the food station. I ordered a coffee and a roll with cream filling.

"What, no beer?" she said with a teasing smirk.

"I want to be at my best if we run into trouble."

She tilted her head. "Are you expecting trouble?"

"Always. It doesn't hurt to be careful."

She held up her hands, palms out. "I won't argue with you."

"I don't mind. If you have ideas about anything, I will listen,"

She smiled. "You are not at all like the commanders I've known. Most of them were stuck on themselves."

"I'm not really a commander. This situation put me into a role that I'm not prepared for. I'm learning on the job, so to speak."

"Well, so far you're doing well," she said.

"I never expected that we would end up in combat situations. I've had to kill a number of people. It's not what I wanted to do."

"Let's face it," she said. "We're out here in a universe that doesn't give a shit that we exist. Your original mission was a mistake that was repeated two, maybe more, times. I was also on a completely ridiculous mission to confront an alien species we knew nothing about."

"Welcome to the human follies club," I said. "We've fucked ourselves big time and now we're stuck in a limbo that's a fool's garden of Eden where we are as useless as tits on a bull."

"Yet, but we will still go on. I suppose it's our fate to search for a Nirvana that doesn't exist."

I smiled. "Exactly."

We arrived in orbit around a planet that was not at all what we expected to see. The planet appeared as a devastated world, the result of a furious battle.

"The cities down there are blasted to hell," Janet said. "I don't see any activity."

"Those blast marks are the result of plasma weapons," Kali said. "My ship had weapons like that, but not powerful enough to destroy all life on a planet."

"I wonder who did this?" I said.

"I believe that the Greys and the Lizard aliens are enemies," Kali said. "We have to assume that it was the result of a Greys' attack."

I sighed. "Okay, scan for survivors." I stood up and walked back to the food station. Kali followed me.

"If they don't find any survivors, are we going down there?" she asked.

"I don't know. Even if there were survivors, there's little we could do for them. We don't have a clue about their anatomy or physiology."

"Let's face it. We don't know anything about alien species. We're just guessing."

"Pretty much," I replied.

"Hey! We've detected a vessel on intercept," Janet yelled.

Kali and I got up and ran back to the command station. The image of the craft on the main screen was that of the Greys.

"Are they coming to finish off any survivors?" Kali asked.

"Good question." I turned to Natale. "Are you detecting any communication pings?"

"Not yet, sir . . . wait, I just got one!"

"Open the link," I ordered.

The image of a Grey appeared. It looked a lot like the first one we communicated with.

"Did you observe this destruction?" it asked.

"No. We just arrived here."

"Why are you here?"

"We thought that they might know what happened to the humans that are missing."

"They are not responsible. We have had incidents with a more advanced species. We believe they are responsible for what happened here."

"Do you know the location of their home world?"

"No, but we think it is nearby."

"We'll search for it, but there are lots of worlds near here. How might we contact you if we find something."

"That will not be necessary. We are aware of your locations."

The communication link abruptly ended.

"Now that's really interesting. They must have some way of tracking where we go."

"They're more advanced technically than we are," Kali said. "I'm sure they know more about hyperspace."

"So, does that mean we're working for them?" Janet asked.

"Not that I'm aware of?" I reacted. "I haven't signed any contracts recently."

She gave me a subtle smirk back.

"Search for nearby habitable systems," I said. "Maybe we'll get lucky. Who knows?"

Who does know?

Only the Shadow does!