14
BRANDI
We lay together on the blankets, an alien hunk on either side of me, and I thought: this could be heaven.
I allowed my post-coital thoughts to drift. Logically, I knew I'd had sex with two aliens, but it didn't really feel that way. It was easy to forget while they were in their human forms, even when they could speak into my mind and knew what I was thinking.
Really what I felt was that I was lucky. Ignoring the whole alien thing, I had two gorgeous men on either side of me! I could feel their individual breaths tickling my bare skin. This was something I hadn't expected when I woke up this morning. It wasn't something I'd ever expected.
I could see why that other woman, Joanna, had run off with Arix.
My thoughts drifted like mist. Did the Karak have religion? Tyrix yelled, "oh my God," but that could have just been him drawing from some verbal database, under the, "What to yell when orgasming," section.
Our perfect moment didn't last long. The reality of everything crashed over me like an avalanche: what was I even doing? I was the acting Base Commander, and I'd gone running off with strangers. At this very moment, my XO was probably wondering why I hadn't returned from my run. Soon he would be freaking out--as he was prone to do--and raising a general alarm, and this time it would be my fault instead of the jumpy guards at the perimeter.
I needed to get back to my desk, and yes, my paperwork. To do anything else was a dereliction of duty.
Kerix shifted his head, nuzzling against my neck, and all my worries fell away. Maybe I could savor this a little bit longer.
Eventually Tyrix rose, stretched, and shifted back into his Karak form, and the lack of his steamy muscular body left a vacuum in the air.
We must retake our ship, he said.
"Indeed," Kerix said out loud. "I am nearly fully charged from this sun's light. We have a chance now that there are only three Wolvae."
I rose to a sitting position. "So, I can't help but point out that I was awfully useless the first time."
We protected you, Tyrix began, but I cut him off with a wave of my hand.
"If not for me, you two might not have had to abandon the ship. I was a distraction, and a bystander, and that is not who I am."
"Our lack of complete photon charge is what forced our retreat," Kerix said, putting a gentle hand on my arm.
"That's not the point. I need a weapon."
Kerix and Tyrix looked at one another, only the former with human eyes.
"Yes," Kerix agreed.
As simple as that, the air shifted and shimmered in front of me, casting flickers of light around the cave. Within seconds two guns lay before me: a Smith & Wesson Model 27 revolver, and an AR-15 rifle.
I picked up the rifle and looked down the sights. "This is nice, but how about the military version?"
Kerix blinked. "Military version?"
"The AR-15 is the civilian model of this rifle," I explained. "It's semi-auto only. The M16 is the military variant, which is fully automatic."
"These are the only two weapons we scanned from the database uploads of Arix," Kerix explained. "These weapons were owned by his... mate."
We have the schematics for a shotgun as well, Tyrix offered.
"Nah. These'll do." Honestly, just having anything in my hands felt better than nothing, even though it'd been a good year since I'd put in my time at the shooting range.
I glanced at the pile of clothes on the ground. "How about some camo?" They both gave me blank looks, so I added, "Camouflage clothing. Something green or brown to blend in, as opposed to these running shorts."
"We... have no such schematics."
I am sorry, Tyrix added.
I began to shrug it off, then gave a start. "You can see inside my head. Arix did that to give me background info on the Karak."
"Yes."
"Well, if you can plant stuff in there, can you take something out? Like, if I focus really hard on camo clothes can you duplicate them?"
Yes, Tyrix said immediately. Such a thing would not work for anything complex, but for simple clothing it will be possible.
"Imagine the clothes in your mind. Focus on them, and only them," Kerix said.
I did as I was told, picturing the standard US ABU: Airman Battle Uniform. Combat boots, baggy pants and long shirt, with green and pale tiger stripes all over. I never felt either of them enter my head, but within seconds the clothes appeared in front of me the same way the guns had, stiff and standing vertically as if wrapped over an invisible mannequin.
Then they were fully there, and collapsed onto the floor in a heap.
"Awesome!" I said, grabbing them and holding them up to my bare chest. "How about you two turn around and give a girl some privacy?"
"Why do you need privacy?" Kerix said at the same time Tyrix thought: My Karak consciousness is unable to turn in any particular direction.
"Just humor me," I said. Tyrix shifted back into his human body, then they both turned around.
I spent an indulgent moment admiring their tight asses before pulling on the ABU.
Everything fit perfectly, and the combat boots were especially comforting. Much better than my running shoes. I laced them up, holstered the pistol, and held the AR-15 across my chest.
"Ready when you are."
We left the cave and strode into the woods as the sun tilted toward the afternoon side of the sky.
Tyrix explained the plan as we walked: we would circle around the clearing to the side, getting as close to the ships as the tree cover would allow, before making our attack. Three Wolvae against three of us was a much fairer fight, especially since the two Karak were fully charged--whatever that meant. Tyrix mentioned Wolvae traps in the woods, so Kerix and I allowed him to take the lead.
"Do, uhh, you two want rifles too?" I asked.
"I suspect we would not be adept at using them," Kerix said.
"Surely not," Tyrix agreed.
"Then why are you both in your human form? Don't get me wrong," I added, "I enjoy seeing you two like this, but are you going to fight the Wolvae with your bare hands?"
Tyrix shook his head. "The Wolvae can sense our Karak forms. We have the possibility of a stealth attack while occupying human bodies."
"We will need to shift into our Karak forms just before the attack itself," Kerix said, "which will also draw immediate attention. But by then we hope it will be too late for the Wolvae."
"Fair enough."
Walking through the woods made me feel more active about the situation. I wasn't abandoning my duties as Base Commander: I was conducting a military exercise with potential allies. And even though I should have delegated these duties to a subordinate in any other circumstance, these Karak had chosen me. Who was I to say no to aliens? That would have been a rude earth welcome. Imagine the diplomatic damage caused by offending them.
I chuckled to myself at the absurdity of it all.
I also felt like Ender Wiggin, from Ender's Game. An immensely unqualified human thrust into an impossible position. Well, that wasn't completely true. Ender wasn't unqualified at all, it turned out. He was the perfect person for that situation.
So what did that make me? Was I going to fuck all of this up, or would I rise to the occasion and succeed?
Stalking through the woods with these two Karak felt natural, even though it wasn't the type of combat I was made for. Even weaponless, having them near me felt like a shield protecting me from harm. And now that I had a weapon, I wouldn't be the weak link holding them back. I was in a position to help them.
Forget being a Lieutenant Colonel. This was the kind of shit that I could be truly proud of.
Tyrix stopped ahead. He crouched down, then pointed at something I couldn't see in the air. Only when I neared and the sunlight reflected off it perfectly did I realize what it was: a thin wire stretched between two trees.
"Holy fuck," I muttered when I saw the log it was attached to in the nearby tree. It had wooden spikes sticking out of it!
We backed-up, then Tyrix triggered the trap. The enormous log swung back and forth harmlessly.
"I don't understand," I said. "That would not harm your Karak form, right?"
"Correct," Tyrix said.
"Then why would the Wolvae make traps like that? Traps only a physical body could trigger?"
"The Wolvae are cunning," Kerix said. "They know you are with us. Or perhaps they know we will attempt to retake our craft in physical forms, so they cannot detect us."
"This way," Tyrix said, leading us around.
We passed half a dozen other traps, more trip-wires and pit-falls that ended in tall wooden spikes. These Wolvae had only been on our planet a few hours and they were already making themselves at home. I thought about what would have happened if a hiker stumbled across one of the traps. When all of this was over we would need to return and disarm them all.
Finally we saw the edge of the clearing in the distance. Tyrix led us around and to the left, where our room to maneuver was quickly encroached upon by the steep walls of the valley. That funneled us into an area to the left of the Karak aircraft, which had only 50 yards of open space to cross.
The three of us crouched low behind a fallen tree.
One Wolvae stood outside the ship, swinging her massive head around to search for movement. We waited for several silent minutes before Tyrix whispered to us.
"The other three must be inside."
"Can't you check?" I whispered back. "Reach our with your Karak super-brain? I know that the other one, Arix, did that when entering my base."
Tyrix gave a small smile, and brushed back his blond hair. "Yes. But it would take several seconds, and the Wolvae would sense it immediately."
"That is why we are speaking out loud now," Kerix added. "Because any Karak telepathy would be instantly detected."
"But they're going to know the moment you shapeshift into your Karak forms anyways," I insisted. "So why not reach out first, then shift?"
"Those few seconds will be valuable," Tyrix said simply.
I decided not to press the issue further. They were the experts, here.
"We will disable that sentry with our beams," Tyrix said. "Capturing one will provide us with valuable information later. Once that is done, we shall charge into our ship and eliminate the remainder."
I took a deep breath. "Simple enough."
It made me anxious sitting there, preparing to attack. I'd trained, but had never been in real combat before. The rifle felt heavy in my hands, and I started to second-guess myself. I should have spent a few minutes practicing back at the cave.
"Ready?" Tyrix said.
"You bet," I lied.
I aimed my rifle at the ship and stared down the barrel.
I could sense them shifting on either side of me: two lamps being ignited, the light glowing against the dull metal of my gun. The Wolvae sentry whipped her head at us instantly, locking onto our location. She raised her head and howled, a terrifying wail to the sky.
And then she charged at us.
The Karak beams shot away at incredible speed, cutting the air like thick knives. The first struck the Wolvae in her jaw, which twisted her head sideways, and then the second struck her in her exposed temple just underneath her ear. She flew backwards, tumbled end over end, and then came to a stop.
GO!
At Tyrix's command I leaped from the log and charged into the clearing, rifle held across my chest. We were incredibly exposed out in the open, and I knew at any moment a Wolvae would leap from the aircraft door and charge at us.
We neared the wounded Wolvae, who was not moving on the ground. I wanted to circle around to avoid it, but Kerix and Tyrix moved straight ahead, so I had no choice but to run within feet of her. She stank terribly, like rotten meat and death, but her chest moved gently with breaths, and she didn't lash out to bite my leg off.
Still, I ran a little faster once she was behind me.
The sound of my boots stomping on the ground and my frantic panting blocked out all other sound. We were thirty yards from the aircraft, then twenty. Where were the others?
And then, in the flash of an eye, one was.
She stepped into the doorway of the aircraft with malice in her yellow eyes. I stopped and raised my rifle to my shoulder, and squeezed off three quick bullets. They thumped through fur and flesh, which surprised the terrible black-coated beast for an instant, but then she was loping toward me on all-fours. I fired again, and again, growing chaotic as the Wolvae neared, preparing to leap, it was almost here and then it would be tearing my limbs off while I screamed, and my finger flashed on the trigger so rapidly that the kickback in my shoulder was like a hammer, and the Wolvae hunched down to leap--
Tyrix's beam caught it in the side, and this time it wasn't meant to stun. It passed through the Wolvae's fur and flesh and bone as easily as a toothpick in a brownie, shooting through the other side and disappearing into the woods. The Wolvae screamed, a terrible sound of pain and anger, and she tried to twist toward the Karak but then another beam struck her in the flank, and a third from Kerix.
She tried to take two more steps, lurched, and then fell still. The glow in her eyes went out gradually, until there was nothing more.
Not allowing myself to stop, I ran the rest of the way to the aircraft entrance, leaning just my head around the corner to check. Nobody there. And then the two glowing Karak beams of light moved past me, and I followed close behind with my rifle raised and ready.
The sweep of the ship took seconds; it was only comprised of three rooms and a cockpit. The Karak paused inside.
I sense no other Wolvae near the ship, Tyrix said. I will subdue the injured one in the clearing.
And just like that, it was over.
I could feel the satisfaction in Tyrix's thoughts, along with a little bit of surprise. There were only two Wolvae here.
Where was the other?
"That was awfully exciting," I said, feeling the adrenaline surging through my veins like acid. The back of my throat tasted like copper. "Now what?"