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“Outpost Quartz, do you copy?” Zark said into his communicator, “I have sight of the bogey’s crash site.” While the frigid winds and endless snow of the planet Illbarz made it difficult to see, Zark was the best tracker this side of the Themision Federation. He’d found much smaller targets in much worse conditions.
“We…ear you…ark, what’s the status of the…get?” The transmission from the outpost came in with heavy static, but was still legible. It was strange, even this far from the outpost, Zark had never gotten this bad of interference outside of the worst snowstorms.
“I’ve got eyes on it, no movement except for a little smoke caused by damage from the impact,” Zark observed the crash site through his binoculars. He switched to the thermal vision setting to more easily spot anything alive down there, but saw nothing. “Permission to approach?”
“Perm…ion granted,” the outpost replied, “do not…gage any…ust observe…peat, do…age…”
“Outpost Quartz? Outpost Quartz, do you copy?” Zark exclaimed into his communicator. “Damn, well, I’m not going back empty-handed. Just a quick inspection and I’ll head back. If anyone’s alive down there, I hope they’re friendly.” Zark stowed his binoculars and picked up his laser rifle. His weapon could fry an Eice Beast 8,000 gsus (Galactic Standard Units) away, so he wasn’t worried, even if he encountered a hostile. Multiple hostiles would be a different story.
Zark spent a long megacycle descending from his mountain perch down into the icy valley where the bogey crashed. It was not a fun time, and it further affirmed his decision to transfer to the warmest planet he could find for his next assignment. But that was in the future, and it was time to focus on the here and now. After many a careful step over ice and snow, Zark arrived at the crash site and finally got a good look at his target.
“Not what I expected. Is this even a ship?” Zark observed the sleek, silver-and-white object before him. It looked more like a capsule or escape pod than a proper ship. Which confused him since the initial reports implied it nimbly soared through the air before crashing to the ground. Maybe it was time to get their instruments checked, because it was clear this thing could not be steered. “We might have been presumptuous. Looking at this thing now, it’s probably just a jettisoned cargo pod or something.”
Zark pondered his options. He could inspect this thing further to confirm his suspicions, but risk being wrong. Or he could try to communicate with Outpost Quartz again and maybe figure out where this thing came from. Heck, if he found a serial number or logo on this thing, that’d be half the work done right there.
“Outpost Quartz, this is First Scout Zark, do you copy?” He tried to contact the outpost, but was met with worse static than before. “Are you kidding me? The interference has only gotten…worse?” He looked at the bizarre capsule before him and briefly wondered if this was the source of interference. Not impossible, in fact, based on the observed evidence, it was highly probable.
“Great, I guess I’ll just take some pictures and make my way back before the storm picks up…hey, what’s that?” Zark took another look at the capsule and saw what appeared to be a handle on the front. It was shiny and reflective, standing out with a noticeably different color from the rest of the pod. “Well, I ain’t pulling it, but that’s…wait, is it moving?” Zark realized the “handle” was actually a moving panel on the device. The area around it was shifting slightly, revealing a small lens.
Light shined out from the lens, clearly indicating it was scanning the area before just as quickly retracting. A muffled, mechanical voice in a language Zark didn’t understand began rattling off something that sounded like a start-up sequence, before the pod opened up like a capsule. Inside was not what Zark expected. It was a female humanoid in what looked like a tightly fit hospital gown, but her most striking feature was a pair of pure white wings on her back.
“Is that an angle? Or is it just a winged humanoid? Would I even be able to tell?” Zark was taken aback. He wasn’t quite sure what he found now, but he knew whatever it was, he was in way over his head. That’s when the girl opened her eyes and stared at him, or maybe through him, he couldn’t tell.
“…” The winged girl was silent as she emerged from the pod, completely unbothered by the cold. She slowly scanned the area with her vision, making only the slightest, most mechanical movements.
“Hey, can you understand me?” Zark broke out of his stupor to ask a simple question.
“…” The girl’s mouth moved without sound. If Zark didn’t know any better, he’d think she was miming some of his lip movements.
“Hello?” Zark asked again, while slowly reaching for his laser rifle. He was getting the chills, and it wasn’t just the snow.
“You’ll do,” she said quietly.
“What?” Zark took a step back as he began to pull out his laser rifle.
“You’ll do,” she repeated louder as she lunged at him. Zark pulled the trigger in a panic, but he hadn’t even gotten the rifle level yet, so the shot went wide as the winged girl wrapped one hand around his throat while the other disarmed him with ease. Zark choked as he felt a frigid iron grip squeeze the life out of him. Whatever this girl was, her fragile appearance was just a façade. He could tell by just her touch that she was far more machine than organic.
“Damn…” Zark croaked out as he tried to reach for the panic button on his communicator, but the girl seized that hand.
“Initiate,” the girl stated as something Zark couldn’t see came out of the fingers holding his throat. Something that began to pierce into his head like a snake with a needle for a head. Zark had never known what it meant to have your person violated, but he knew in an instant this was a thousand times worse. He could feel this girl invading his head, no, invading his mind. He’d heard of mind reading, of espers peering into your thoughts, but this was different. She wasn’t reading his mind, she was analyzing it, cataloging all the information, and transferring it out as if she just inserted a flash drive into a computer.
“Information acquired, thank you for your cooperation, First Scout Zark,” the girl stated.
“Get out…get out of my head,” Zark demanded between desperate breaths.
“No, Outpost Quartz would not normally allow me inside without heavy resistance,” she explained. “So, you will go in my stead, and let me inside.”
“I would never,” Zark tried to stand his ground, knowing he was probably dead anyway.
“No, I will not kill you, and that was not a request,” she replied to his thoughts. “It was an order, and you will do it willingly.” Whatever probes she stuck into his head began to dig deeper and tighter. They were no longer pulling information out of his head, now they were sending something inside and not just information, but something more. “Please do not struggle, your cooperation will make the process significantly less painful,” she plunged her free hand into Zark’s chest and began pumping more of the mysterious substance into him.
Zark felt his grasp on reality slipping as his consciousness drowned inside his own brain. As something else began to invade his person and take control. In one sense, he was terrified at his sudden demise. In another, he was angry that she lied. Whatever she was doing was going to kill him, maybe not his body, but “Zark” could feel himself ceasing to exist as someone else was being formed inside his brain. But in another way, he was relieved this pain would soon be over. His last sensation was his whole body warping and twisting into something disturbingly familiar.
\<~--~>/
“Captain, I just got a transmission from Zark,” Outpost Quartz’s communication officer explained. “He finally got out of the interference, and he’s ready to deliver his report on the target.”
“Good, I’ll debrief him myself. Anything else?” The Captain asked.
“N-no…well, no, it’s probably nothing,” the officer shook his head.
“If you’re concerned, speak up,” the Captain insisted.
“Well, his voice still sounded like it was being garbled by interference, that or his communicator is damaged because I was getting terrible feedback,” the communication officer explained.
“Huh, I’ll bring that up with him then,” the Captain nodded and left the room. The communication officer turned back to his desk and checked the surveillance cameras outside the outpost. He could see Zark approaching, but couldn’t help but feel something was off. Was Zark smaller than before?
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First contact in any context is the most important part of any mission or event, but it's not only a matter of how you make first contact but also if you should make it.
Until next time, Read, Comment and Enjoy.
