REBIRTH

No one can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. That may be true of the beings of Earth but that is by our design. Every being we create are made to only inhabit their planet and exist in their atmosphere. Back before the Fold it was different. We were different.

We were the first. Created by the amalgamating of elements from our universe. Creators of worlds and races, we were held to high esteem and renown in other universes. We created symbiotic planets and their races to mimic the ones our Emptors needed to survive. We used to interact with what we called the “New Races”, fascinated and in awe of their differences, similarities and evolution. With respect and permission, we harvested what was needed in order to meet our Emptor’s requests. In return we shared information, history and technology. We were encouraging and supportive, even nurturing when it came to their development and growth. Right up to the moment they turned on us, destroyed our planet’s cores, and brought us to our knees. Our own creations. They wanted more than we were willing to give, and their greed led to destruction. Genocide. They turned us into survivors when before we thrived. My race had wealth beyond anything you could envisage. They took it all as we scrambled to evacuate and save our loved ones. Now we are pitied by even the most pitiful. We survived using the same techniques we used to help other life forms, star systems, universes and planets. Now we harvest without consent nor empathy in order to sustain ourselves. The beings we create no longer have knowledge of our existence or understand their own. Earth was given its name because in our mother tongue it simply translates to “Basics”. It provides us the water, food and resources necessary for the survival of my people. Most importantly it provides our planet’s cores. Every 5 rotations of our Moon we harvest. This is equivalent to 3 billion Earth years. We are able to extend this time every Harvest due to the knowledge we acquire through the study of “Humans” as you call yourselves.

Do you have any more questions, Marcus? As you can now tell, I heard everything you were screaming at me in your panic and confusion. I can hear everything in the “vacuum” of space.

Marcus could actually feel the struggle of his brain trying to process everything he had just heard and was still seeing. His brain wanted to deny that what was happening was reality. How on a normal routine service day was this happening? He was just doing his job, checking the satellite that maintained communication between Nasa and the Expedition FH Spacecraft. He kept the solar arrays clean, changed them when they needed to be changed and did any other maintenance required. He had finished cleaning one solar array and was carefully jetting around to the other, only to come across…. a woman floating in space? And of course, to add to the absurdity of it all she was completely naked. He had almost immediately started screaming. At first out of shock and fright but then that morphed into questions yelled in bafflement to himself because, he had obviously gone insane.

Now that he had been staring slack jawed at her as she explained her existence and apparently his own, he still couldn’t wrap his head around what he was looking at. She resembled the Ethiopian people, with a long and beautiful face, high cheekbones, a slender nose and full lips. Her white hair long and flowing around her looked like dread locs. But he could tell immediately she was not human. Her eyes were too large and too old, like they had seen millenniums, the third one between her eyebrows didn’t help either. Her hair moved in a calculated way as if it had a life of its own. Her toes were as long as her fingers and she had two extra ones on each hand. And he couldn’t tell if it was one of her locs wrapped around her waist and leg or… tails?

The one thing that shocked him the most, that his eyes couldn’t help but come back to again and again was her stomach. He was either crazy or this Alien woman was pregnant, her protruding bellybutton resembled a pyramid. He watched her watch him as he thought about everything she said. He thought about her offer to answer more questions and after weighing and sorting through the hundreds that came to mind (many about the things that weren’t adding up), he realized that only one really mattered. “Will we survive this “harvesting?”

She looked at him without blinking opened her mouth and spoke words that he heard in his own head. No. Not this time. her voice was low but soft almost soothing except what she was saying was anything but.

Marcus felt a swell of emotions rock over him. “Why not? How could you destroy a whole planet and kill billions of people? It’s not right we haven’t done anything wrong! Why should we suffer for those other races mistakes?!”

She just looked at him unblinking unmoving with no expression on her face. No empathy or sympathy. Marcus felt anger dominate all his other emotions and wondered for a moment if he couldn’t kill the thing and stop this. Save his planet and his people.

There. She said suddenly so close to him his whole body screamed. He could see her eyes up close, the black of her pupils swirled in her milky way irises and the whites of her eyes had a type of glimmer. Her third eye was a black hole. He couldn’t look away. That’s exactly it. You just thought of destroying me because you could not control me or this outcome. We see everything Marcus. We watched you destroy each other and do unspeakable things to one another. Even with all your laws and religions you “Humans” still prey on the weak, the innocent, the different, the uncontrollable. We did not intervene because you are lesser life forms and only serve one purpose. Your world’s existence is the equivalent to, what you “Humans” would call, science experiments and as the research subjects you are nothing more than are organ donors. She moved away again. Marcus released the breath he was unaware he was holding. He felt nauseous from looking into her eyes.

It wasn’t until you started destroying our most important creation, that we decided your fates. Here was another example of greed created through “Humans” seemingly biological need to control and possess. Your people have the audacity to look for another inhabitable planet instead of taking care of the one specifically created for your existence. You ask me “why?” and the answer is simple. We are going to end what you have already begun. Except your people don’t get to run away. No, you will end along with your planet, and we will build again.

Marcus could do nothing but stare. He had never felt more helpless in his whole life. He wished he could close his eyes or wake up or turn back the clock but… then what? The Alien was right. They had all but destroyed their world. Most, if not all the food was genetically modified, Antarctica just became a myth last year after it disappeared ten years ago and most of the major coastal cities were halfway under water. The oceans were death traps filled with garbage; wild fish was now a thing of the past and scientists were still too ashamed to list how many sea creatures known, and unknown was now extinct. The children being born right now are coming into a world that will be uninhabitable in the next two decades. They were looking for a new planet to inhabit before the next decade was up. But still, to be sentenced to death. “Please.” Marcus whispered in a choked voice. He glanced at her stomach. “T-think about the children.”

Marcus immediately realized he had made a mistake. Her eyes became feral, and she smiled. Her teeth were perfectly straight and white, but he noticed the unnatural length and sharpness of her canines. Her tail unwound from her leg and moved towards him in a flash wrapping around the throat of his suit. He would have heaved a sigh of relief if it wasn’t for all the warnings going off in his helmet. Suddenly her face smoothed over and she retracted her tail. She blinked and the warnings stopped. Marcus knew better than to relax, everything had happened so fast he felt dizzy. He tried to calm his breathing as he cautiously watched her; wary of the oxygen his panicked breathes were wasting. Her third eye was closed, and she touched her stomach with her spider like hands. Her third eye opened, and she gave him an almost motherly smile. We have decided to give you all time to say your goodbyes. You have seven days. Make them count Marcus. He opened his mouth to thank her then remembered where he was. “Wait!” He reached his hand out towards her and everything went black.

Marcus woke up in NASA’s sick bay. He blinked confused; did he get gravity sickness again? The adjustment must have been brutal this time he couldn’t remember shit. He got up and looked around for some water noticing most of the curtains were drawn for privacy. He wondered if the flu was going around or something and decided it was best to hurry and leave. Walking out into the hallway he was shocked to see what seemed like the whole science department standing down the hall. Even Dr. Catherine Hernandez, the lead scientist, stood talking to them all in what sounded like an agitated voice. She was the first to see him. He slowed to a stop as they all turned to see what had caused her eyes to widen and stared at him a shock. Marcus chuckled nervously. “Hey docs…. I’m all better now, no need to be so alarmed.” They continued to stare but in that way that scientists do when analyzing new findings. Dr. Martinez stepped forward looking him up and down before placing an “it’s ok I’m a doctor” smile on her face. “Hey Johnson… how are you feeling?”

He looked at her warily before answering, “Great doc, how are you feeling?” She didn’t laugh like the nurses did when he pulled that joke.

“Would you mind coming with me to my office?”

“Um… ok yeah, sure. I was just looking for some water.”

“Of course, water. I’ll have some brought up for you. Follow me please.”

“Ok, thanks.” Something was up. He followed the doctor to the elevator bay, and they made their way up to the offices on the third floor. Every time he caught her eye she would smile and look away. Marcus started to feel hot. He didn’t think the beautiful doctor who had a killer body, long dark hair and beautiful brown eyes was giving him signals she was finally interested in more than a friendship. This time when she looked at him, he was already watching her, and she averted her eyes quickly minus the smile. Yeah, she was giving him the opposite of flirty vibes. They walked down a generic hallway lined with white double doors set into white walls before getting to the end where there were three doors, two on each side with name plaques, and the last one ending the hall with the doctor’s name on it. She opened the door rounded her desk and sat in her chair like it was routine. She placed her elbows on her desk clasped her hands together laid them down and stared at him. “Are you going to sit down Johnson?”

“Oh yeah!” He sat down in front of the desk in a surprisingly comfortable chair. He looked around the office that had a floor to ceiling window behind her, though she had the curtains closed making the office look small. Otherwise, it was simple, clean and organized. The only personal things she had were her degrees and awards decorating the left wall and a picture of a blue-eyed husky on her desk.

“Nice dog.”

“How did you get here Johnson?”

“What?”

“How did you all return here together?”

“I’m sorry what? What are you talking about?”

Dr. Martinez looked at him quietly her face carefully expressionless. Something niggled in the back of Marcus’s head, he felt his eye twitch.

“This morning 15 astronauts were in space, this afternoon 15 astronauts appeared in the sick bay with no injuries but completely unconscious. They all arrived here without their ships.”

Marcus stared. He tried to process what she was saying because it was simply impossible. A flash of an eye with a swirling black hole popped into his head. He flinched. That was just a bad dream he had while coming down from gravity sickness. He always had weird dreams while he recovered. “What time is it?”

“It’s 1215 hours.”

“When did I… we get here?”

“Exactly 1210 hours.”

A cold sweat broke out across Marcus’s body. That’s impossible. “Gravity sickness usually takes me out for longer than 5 minutes.”

“Marcus you weren’t in the sickbay because of gravity sickness!” Dr. Martinez suddenly yelled, agitation and exasperation clear in her face and tone “You all just appeared there. Out of thin air! Jesus Christ, someone must know something! One minute you were all in space, space! I mean McKenzie and Dawson were on the Moon for fuck’s sake and the next minute you were all in the sickbay, some mid transmission! It was like a reverse alien abduction minus the lights!”

Marcus felt like something snapped.

“No.”

“Wha—?!”

‘No, no, no, no, no. That was just a dream, it wasn’t real! It was just a bad dream! She can’t be real…” He stood staring up at the ceiling as if he could see through all the way to that satellite. To her. His brain moved a mile a minute until he made the conscious effort to reign it in. He finally looked at the doctor, saw the fear and confusion on her face. He picked up the surprisingly comfortable chair he knocked over when he jumped up and sat back down. He thought back on everything the Alien Woman had told him and took a deep breath letting reality settle in and shoving the overwhelming panic way into the back of his mind. “Before I start, I want to make myself clear. We don’t have much time and I will not be wasting it all here.”

“What?” She asked quietly bewilderment clear in her voice. “Help me understand what’s going on here Marcus.”

He stared at her. She really was beautiful.

“We have seven days before an Alien race that claims to have created us comes to destroy Earth annihilating us all.”