Excerpt: Mana Pool - The Ghost Factor

Prologue

Washington DC, United States of America
December 25, 2012
9:47 AM

It felt wrong standing on that planet, being in a sauna crowded by sweating species with fur wrong. The moment I first set on Terra Firma I thought my legs were gonna give from the gravity and the smog in the air will choke the life out of me. There was no smog and I was thankful. It would be embarrassing if it did. Denverbay ordered me to make this apology to the humans on a country I attacked to settle any hostile differences. He was my old friend after all, but when he’s at work he has a bigger authority over me, politically, and I have to follow him. It had to be done. I just wish it wasn’t me to make the speech.

Commander Nodus Kantra was fresh out of the infirmary and was made my bodyguard for the time being-he too didn’t like the idea. The drop ship stopped at an air field near our destination, along with five other Nova soldiers to protect the ship from humans to take the advanced technology for their own reasons. Humans were there to greet us, both with automatic weapons and picket signs of words I can’t translate, there eyes with fear and nothing else. The main ones in black business suits and microphones in their ears escorted me and Kantra to what the call a “limousine,” sort of this stretched out wheel based vehicle with black paint and tinted windows. It reminded me of a corpse car and I didn’t remember the last time I was in a wheeled vehicle.

The ride was bumpy, but quiet inside. We stayed together white three other humans rode with us. One had a menacing look on his face, eyes hidden by his sunglasses. Kantra nudged me on a shoulder. He towered over me and had to hunch over in the cramp space, but still manage to cross his arms and stroke his dagger, ready to use it for defense.

“The human there is not making me comfortable,” he said in his language. The translator collar picked up his voice and directed it to my ear holes. His voice filled with worry.

The human turned toward him and scowled. He slid his glasses down his nose, giving me a sight of his eyes. Dark bags were under each one and was ready to fall to sleep.

“Hey, grey,” he said, “mind if you keep you bodyguard quiet.”

I nodded and nudged Kantra.

The human paused to look away, then he turned back to me. “Ever heard of Nome, Alaska?” He asked, looking straight at me.

I was on the planet for ten minutes and he’s already asking me questions I don’t have the answers to. The collar translated my voice to their language. “No, I have not.”

His jaw clenched. “That’s what I thought.” He looked away.

“Henderson, don’t you dare start,” another human said. “I know you were pulled from your family today, but this is not the time to go redneck on us .” He was silent from then on. Outside, I was in control, inside, I was confused by his comment. I never heard of what he said so it might’ve had some importance.

We arrived at our destination, a white building with an architecture of a temple. The parking lot was full of the same vehicles and the snow covered the ground. Protesters were at the gate surrounding the building. Kantra got out first, then me. Standing four feet tall I thought I was gonna get trampled, but kept my posture stiff as we went inside. A man in navy blue clothes and a read neck tie came toward us. He looked stunned at our appearance and his voice shook from being in the cold air for too long.

“My name’s Thomas Gates. I’m the press secretary of the White House.” He extended a hand towards me. I had to brief myself on their communication customs and they seem to have similar gestures. I grasped his hand, mine smaller than his and our hands went up and down. A gasp escaped and smiled; Kantra went stiff. “Will you be here long?” he asked.

“No, this will be short. I have no intention to stay here long as par to my orders,” I answered.

“Of course,” he said, hesitating. “Right this way please.”

The corridors of the building were beautiful, decorated with art that belonged at an art gallery. Portraits of past leaders of the country, flowers in ever priceless vase, even the carpet didn’t fail to impress. The offices had they doors open and were partially open. One woman looked both at Kantra and me and scampered out of the way with primal fear in her eyes. Other decorations were there and as I remember correctly, they were part of they annual holiday called Christmas. I guess we made the speech date in the middle of their day off.

Bu then they were in office long before we came, not since their asteroid mucked up their lives and the containment fiasco making it worse.
I heard voices as we came closer, the clicking of gadgets and the shuffling of feet against carpet. Other humans stood at an entrance, blocked by their bodies. I ducked down between their legs to see inside their press room, full of media reports and cameramen. A man spoke to them and I didn’t see him.”

“It has been a hard week for all of us,” he said. I admired his voice. “The people responsible for the containment of transformed humans has been stopped and the ones part of it is captured and being questioned. The events at Area 51 was what made it stop and the air base is now under surveillance for the time being. The prisoners and survivors are already being taken to their friends and families. Now to have you attention, I would like to invite the man, I think, responsible for the attack and he would like to make his apology to us and answer questions. Gentalmen.”
The humans parted way and I was given a view of the room. The humans that saw me gasped in fear and cringed in their seats. Cameras swiveled on their tripods to broadcast my tired face all over their media system. Photo camera clicked rapidly with flash bulbs making spots in my vision. Good this this wasn’t on the Galactic News Network.

I walked inside, hands behind my back. The podium was empty say for a tall black skinned man with grey hair looking at me with a hand of welcome. He stepped down and to the side. I came to the podium, a single microphone sitting on it’s edge. One problem I saw was that I wasn’t tall enough to reach them. I made arrangements to accommodate my height just in case and Kantra followed. He told a human to give him a chair and he placed it where I had to stand. I stepped up on it and I felt two and a half feet taller.

My heart was racing and a small drop of sweat ran down my bald head. I held up a hand and the flashing stopped. Everybody was quiet and I didn’t like it.

“Good morning,” I said and I saw a few humans shutter at my voice. “My name is Captain Brill Secambre, leader and owner of an independent military group, Nova Company. First let me say that I am sorry for the attack. It wasn’t our intentions to liberate the base and free your people. The transformed as you call them. Our true intentions were to recover a certain individual that was taken by the agents. He is alive and recovering.” I lied. Jaruka Teal is already on the planet and at the kids winery on the other side of the country, serving his sentence on the planet for killing humans. A capitol offense against the Galactic Council and his judgement made him pull the trigger.

“I understand that you're going through a difficult time right now, figuring out what is happening to your bodies, but we don’t know either. The men under my wing have an idea of your transformations, but that will lead to the ones that know more about the concept better than me. I see that you're treating this like a virus of some kind and I see no sense of doing it. I’m scared to and I feel I should do the same to help. But I’m only here to say my apologies to the men and women that survived the attack. I will answer a few questions and then I will be on my way.”

The room erupted with shouting; reporters extending their recording devices and screaming questions and insults at both of us. The amount if energy of them almost made me step back and trip of the chair. Kantra got scared and saw shadows shift on his body and the spikes under his black shadow walker uniform were quivering in an unsettling way.

He didn’t take it anymore so he took a step forward and howled at them, bellowing his feral shouts. “ONE AT A TIME YOU DOGS!” He yelled. The humans went silent and fear swept over their faces. Kantra’s shadows were erratic and he was about to loose it there. I don’t blame him, he hates humans and he admitted he would kill one if one entered his space. He turned towards me, seeing me shaking me head and a disappointed scowl. He settled down and he returned to the plane.

“Sorry about that,” I said, “he’s not himself at the moment.” I looked over the standing humans, afraid of speaking. I had to start somewhere. “You there in the brown suit.” I pointed at a woman holding a paper notepad.

“Do you have any leads on the cause of Asteroid Helen’s sudden change in direction and started the infection? Were you the cause on the Wave?” She held out her recorder.

I knew they would say that. Outsiders would tend to be the scapegoats of a tragedy to a developing species, and Denverbay told me how they would react. Just look at Jaruka, he was beaten by a female human for not looking like a human. “No, we are not the cause of the asteroid’s change in directions, nor the Wave as you call it. Next question.”

A dark skinned man in a pleaded jacket asked next. “We heard rumors of this General Arnold Smart was in charge of the operation to take the transformed humans to Area 51. Can you comment if he is captured at this moment.”

“We realize it is him that was in charge and I have a feeling you would deal with him to. He is in fact in trouble with the political parties from my government for kidnapping our friend and attempted to start a war with us. At this moment he escaped the attack and we lost track of he whereabouts.” I left out the part where he transformed into a blood thirsty Reaper, killed forty soldiers in ten minutes with the swipe of it’s scythe appendage, and almost killed the human that save our group and blew its face off before transporting. “Final question.”

A white skinned man with long black hair rose. “I have two. Is there a cure to the transformations and what are you gonna do to the people you abducted out of Nome, Alaska, Mr. Roswell?”

Again with this name.

Kantra came to the podium and spoke in the microphones. “Think we had enough questions to ask.” I nodded and began my descent off the chair.
The reporters went back to banter me with questions, but I did hear a woman screaming. She wasn’t scared of us thats for sure, this was a scream of her being tortured. Her voice rose above all of them and everybody, including me and Kantra, looked at the source.

A young woman in a yellow pant suit was on the floor grasping on her left thigh, face grimacing and leg shaking. She didn’t care about the people around her so she started to take off her pants down to her knees. People screamed and gasped at the sight.

A glowing blue tattoo of a design I never seen before was on her inner thigh. Skin started to peel and melt from it as steam rose from the piece of art. Her eyes were wide and were immediately filling with tears. Scott and Katie told me what happened to them and this is the first sign of transforming. In the next six hours, she will go though the final change and see will come out with a tail, ears the same as elves, and armor plating on her fore arms, legs, and spine. I didn’t wasn't to see the result so Kantra escorted me out of the room.

The man that spoke before me returned to the podium. “Ladies and gentlemen, calm down, your questions will be answered shortly. Have the woman escorted to another part of the building and lets continue.”
There was another task I had to take care of. I have to get a hold if this Marshal, Porter I think, and lay out Jaruka’s condition to live on this planet for two and a half years. Once that was settled four hours later I was back on the Endeavor in orbit and we entered Slipspace and out of that solar system. I wished Jaruka good luck and hoped for the best he wouldn’t kill any more humans.

So much for First Contact rituals.