Alien Omega Read online

  Alien Omega

  Omega Series Book 2

  marc landau

  Copyright © 2019 by Marc Landau

  This is a work of fiction. All characters appearing are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter One

  “I think I’m in love with an alien. I hope it doesn’t eat me. - Wil”

  I looked down and tried taking it all in. Below us was a green and red planet encircled in seven rings, flickering like the Northern Lights.

  I needed a minute to process everything that had just happened. It was too much to wrap my puny human mind around.

  Planet Seven? Planet Pop Lights? It wasn’t in the database. The robot had already confirmed that. Would I be the one to name it? Wow! That would be pretty cool, discovering a planet.

  Well, technically my alien rock ex-girlfriend found it. She’s the one who brought us here, leaving behind a raging space war between Earth Prime and unknown aliens who also weren’t in the bot’s database. That was two things the walrus didn’t know.

  Two unknown entities showing up at the same time was too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence. There had to be more going on behind the scenes. Some grand plan.

  Another nap would help to let it soak into the brain and slosh around. I figured things out better after sleep. Science says sleep’s good for neurotransmitters. It’s replenishing, cleans out the junk in the mind. Sounded good to me. Any excuse to take a nap is a good thing.

  “You should not take a sleep break now,” the bot said.

  “How did you know I was thinking about that?”

  “I have a database of your facial expressions and eye tracking, and the results of them.”

  “Creepy, dude.”

  “It is not creepy. It is useful in determining your decision-making processes.”

  “You’re staring at my face and figuring out what I’m gonna do. And making a list. You’re like a stalker. That’s creepy.”

  “I am tracking micro-expressions and calculating possible decision variants based on them. I am unable to stalk. It is not in my programming.”

  “So you have a list of stuff I do?”

  “Correct.”

  “Like what?”

  “When your face moves left and your eyes look down at a thirty-four degree angle, you will use the bathroom in approximately two point eight minutes.”

  “You’re tracking when I have to take a dump?”

  “And when you urinate.”

  “Dude. Stop doing that.”

  “Command confirmed.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You are welcome.” The bot blinked, then spoke again. “I also know that when your cheeks flush and your eyes move at a rate of seventeen milliseconds, you are going to self-stimulate.”

  “That’s so creepy! Stop!”

  “Command confirmed.”

  I’d worry about the robot’s proclivities later. Right now I had to figure out what to do next. We were stuck somewhere way off the grid, floating in the orbit of an unknown planet. My ex was here, but she was an alien, and there was an Earth fleet and an alien fleet that wanted her-it, alive…or dead.

  A typical Monday on the Outpost.

  This wasn’t what I signed up for. Not even close. The whole point of joining the auxiliary watch crew was to be left alone to sit at the edge of space and do nothing. I was trying to get the hellvian away from the stresses on Earth Prime. They were insignificant compared to what I was dealing with now.

  The bot drove me crazy and that was bad enough. But now there was a space war, and an unknown alien with super powers on the ship. And it happened to look and act exactly like the love of my life, who’d died a long time ago.

  This can’t be happening. I must be dreaming. Or on some new mind shift drug.

  That’s gotta be it. I’m tripping my brains out on the couch in my living quarters back on Prime. Yeah, that’s it. I’m just waiting for the drug to wear off.

  It could also be some new high-tech virtual reality game. All I have to do is win the game or get killed, instead of waiting for the drug to wear off. Either is okay. Just remember, this is all some dream-hallucination augmented reality game.

  “It is none of those things,” the bot said.

  “Stop doing that!”

  “Doing what?”

  “Tracking my expressions and reading my database.”

  “I didn’t do any of that.”

  “Then how did you know what I was just thinking?”

  “You were mumbling.”

  “Oh, okay.”

  I took another moment to process. Whatever was going on, it didn’t matter. Dream or reality, I was stuck in it for the moment. I pinched myself just to double check it wasn’t a dream or the alien wasn’t making me hallucinate again, but I didn’t wake up. Too bad. It would be a relief to be back in my living quarters with my humdrum life on Earth Prime. I’d kill to be back in my boring life.

  Wars, aliens and robots—it was too much for me. I needed a vacation from what was supposed to be a vacation in deep space. I’d signed up so I could sit on the edge of space, play vid games, and get paid for it. Easy. Now it was a free-for-all. Like they say, be careful what you wish for. You can run away from your problems, but new, worse ones chase you down. Turns out I was better off on Earth Prime than I realized. If I could clink my unapproved sneakers together three times and say, “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home,” I’d take it.

  “What are you thinking about?” I heard Kat ask.

  For a moment I’d forgotten about the super-powerful alien rock that had transformed into my dead ex-girlfriend.

  “It’s just kind of a lot to take in.”

  “Tell me about it.” Kat looked at the screen. “It’s a beautiful planet. Reminds me of the time we went to Octavian Prime.

  I smiled. “I remember.” What was I doing? Smiling about a memory I had with Kat. This wasn’t Kat. It was an alien poking into my memories. My warm memory shifted and anger bubbled up. She-it had no right to invade my personal thoughts and use them against me.

  “Can you not do that?”

  “Do what?”

  “I know what you’re doing.”

  She looked at me with confusion, and again it pulled at my heart. I’d seen that look many times before. Like the time I tried to move the couch by myself, and she stood there looking at me with an expression that said there’s no way you can do that by yourself. But I was too stubborn to ask for help. She offered, but my ego refused.

  “I got it!” I’d barked with frustration, sweat dripping from my face.

  “Sure you do,” she’d grinned. Of course, she was right. In the end I told her I didn’t want to move the couch anyway. It was in the perfect spot to begin with.

  “Sure it is,” she grinned.

  Dammit. The alien
was almost a perfect recreation of her. How the frak was it doing it?

  Kat’s brow furrowed. “What am I doing, Wil?”

  “Stop reading my mind.”

  “I’m not. It’s just that stupid look you always have.”

  “What look?”

  “The one where you don’t like it when I know what you’re thinking.”

  She was right. She knew my expressions. My moods. She used to be able to sense if I had a bad day before I even walked into the living quarters. I loved that about her. She knew me too well, and she accepted all my shat, good and bad. And I know I’m a handful at times.

  “Stop it.”

  “Stop what?” she asked.

  “Just stop being Kat!”

  I saw her face wilt. The words had hurt her. My instinct was to apologize, to take her in my arms. It had been so long since I felt her embrace. I missed her so much. Too much. It’s not her. It’s an it, I reminded myself. I held back. This was no time to worry about my past. I had to get my bearings and assess the situation.

  We’d vanished from the action. I’d run away faster than a Tolivan jack rabbit. Hey, we were all about to be evaporated by alien laser cannons. I didn’t know what else to do. Like the saying goes, sometimes it’s better to run away and live to fight another day. On the other hand, a brave man only dies one death. A coward dies a thousand times.

  Why is there always an alternate quote for every quote?

  I hated to admit it, but it was time to be honest. I was always a bit of a coward. And I was ashamed of it. Too scared to really live. That’s partly why I took the job doing nothing out in nowhere. That way, nothing bad would happen. I couldn’t get hurt again. I needed a break from the pain. I thought I could heal, but maybe I was just running away.

  Now we were plunked down into the middle of who knows where, circling some gorgeous planet and leaving behind a possible Universal Global War Twelve that I may have started.

  It wasn’t my fault, but I couldn’t help but feel responsible. I’d found the damn rock in the first place. Now I felt the weight of responsibility. All I wanted was to click my sneakers and be back in my living quarters with Poka and pizza.

  You sound pathetic, I heard a voice in my head say. Was it Kat communicating telepathically again? I waited a second to see if the voice had anything else to say, but no one spoke up, so I chalked it up to me talking to myself. Again.

  You’re being a whiny baby, the little voice said.

  “I know.”

  So stop.

  “ I’m trying. This isn’t what I expected.”

  Life never is. And no one’s gonna come and rescue you like you’re some damsel in distress.

  “I’m not a damsel.”

  You’re not?

  “Okay, I’m acting like a damsel.”

  More like a Plevian wood mouse.

  “Okay, I get the point. You’re right.”

  You mean… you’re right.

  I was right. It was time to grow the hellvian up. Whether I wanted to or not.

  “Are you doing that thing where you argue with yourself?” Kat asked.

  “Yeah.” I smiled.

  “Did you figure out what to do?”

  “Not yet. But I’m working on it.”

  “You will. You always do.”

  “I do?”

  “Yeah. I remember you always drive yourself crazy trying to do exactly the right thing. Or worrying too much about messing something up. Or being too afraid, but then when you do it, it turns out to be no big deal. Remember that time we went space diving, and you were dry heaving in your jumpsuit?”

  She started laughing.

  “Shut it.”

  “I always thought it was cute when I’d catch you arguing with yourself.”

  “You didn’t think I was crazy?”

  “Kooky for sure, but not crazy. You’ve always been a kook. That’s why you and Poka get along so well.”

  “Shut it.”

  It felt good to talk to her. Even if she was an alien-vampire-world-killer.

  Kat looked through the vid screen and took in the sight of the multicolored planet below.

  “Amazing,” she said.

  “It is.”

  “Reminds me of our vacation on…”

  “Can you not do that, please?”

  “Do what?”

  “Just don’t remind me of stuff we used to do. Please. This whole thing is really confusing me.”

  Her expression fell. “Okay. I get it. Sorry.”

  I wasn’t sure she got it or was sorry, but I was relieved that at least she stopped bringing up the past. I didn’t need to relive the heartbreak. Especially when it wasn’t even Kat. My Kat was dead. She must have seen my eyes start to well up.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “It’s nothing.”

  “Your eye appendages are leaking fluid,” the bot chimed in.

  “Thanks for the play-by-play.”

  “Are you broken? Your biometrics look fine.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “My database confirms that if you are not injured, then there is a ninety-nine point nine percent probability you are crying.”

  “I’m not crying!”

  “Wil. You can talk to me. You don’t have to keep everything bottled up. That was always a problem with us.”

  With us. There’s no us. There’s an alien replica toying with my emotions.

  “Just stop it!” I barked.

  I could see I’d hurt her. But I was too pissed to care. Not really. I felt like shat for yelling at her.

  Remember it’s an it not a her. It’s messing with your brain, said the voice in my head.

  "This is too fraking confusing,” I muttered.

  I couldn’t believe I was dealing with relationship issues with an alien who’d taken the form of my dead ex. This was bullshat. We had more pressing issues. Like being in the deep end of the universe’s butthole, staring at an uncharted planet, with no idea how to get back—and even if we went back, we’d wind up smack in the middle of an interspecies war.

  The alien had obviously brought us here for a reason. And I’m pretty sure if I asked the Kat-alien, she’d say she didn’t know. But it seemed too specific of a place to wind up “accidentally.”

  “Kat, do you have any idea why you brought us here?”

  “I don’t. And I didn’t bring us here.”

  It was weird that the alien was pretending to be Kat with such commitment. It didn’t make sense. Why not just tell me it took her form to make me more comfortable, or whatever, and then let me know its plans for world domination, or whatever its diabolical scheme was?

  I admit that’s a bit pessimistic. But what do you expect? All the vids have aliens taking over the world. Not to mention that Earth Prime has battled with many alien species before the alliances.

  All we did was fight until the Ancellionaians showed up. They were so friendly, everyone on Prime thought it had to be a trick. Like in the old days when people from New York would visit the Midwest and get all paranoid when people were friendly. “What do you mean, have a nice day?”

  It wasn’t a trick. The Ancellionaians were super positive and chill. I only wished they were the first alien race to visit Prime. It would’ve avoided a lot of wars and invasions. In the years after their visit, they became the galaxy’s most highly regarded diplomats and ambassadors. Many wars were avoided because of them.

  I wished a representative had been onboard when those aliens arrived. Maybe they could’ve said something to avoid all the shooting. Though I doubted it. There was something special about the rock. It was too important. Like oil and nukes, back in the stone age. Or Belapian crystals. Commodities too precious for diplomacy.

  Those aliens wanted that rock more than they wanted peace. And if they couldn’t have it, they’d destroy it.

  They almost had. If it wasn’t for Kat’s sudden ability to teleport, I’m pretty sure we’d be toast. Or at least me and Poka would be
. I wasn’t sure if the Kat-alien could survive, but it seemed like it would be pretty hard to destroy.

  Then again, maybe that was only when it was in rock form. Once it had taken a soft, squishy human shape, it might be as vulnerable as we were. I doubted it. But it was definitely more vulnerable now than when it was a rock harder to cut than a Trilian black diamond.

  The alien’s new human form also seemed to imbue it with abilities. As a jeweled cocoon it only sucked power and defended itself against attack, mostly via telepathic visions. As a human it had thoughts and feelings, not to mention the power to teleport a thirty-ton outpost pod across a gazillion miles of uncharted space and plop us down in front of this unknown planet.

  Chapter Two

  I was sure we were brought here for a reason, even though Kat didn’t know what it was. Or where the hellvian we were. Or how to get us back. Or what to do if we couldn’t. Would we be stuck in space forever? Stranded at this unknown planet? Was it even habitable? Would I ever see Prime again? I thought of Mom and my heart sank. As annoying and kooky as she was, I’d miss her.

  First things first. Even if alien-Kat could teleport us back, there were two species trying to kill us, so going back wasn’t the best idea. Also, if she teleported us away from the fighting and back to Prime, I wasn’t sure the alien wouldn’t absorb the planet or drain the sun of all its energy. At least we seemed to be safe here for the moment. Wherever here was.

  “Bot. Any update on where the hellvian we are?”

  “Why would I have an update? I have already informed you that this region is not in our database.”

  “Can you check again?”

  “Why would I check again?”

  “Ugh. You’re so frustrating.”