Volume 2: Gamma-17, Chapter 2.1

My name is Adam Samson, the lone human aboard the Specialty Resource and Research Vessel

The Radiance.

A few months—or a couple Imperial cycles ago, depending on your metric, I was just a regular human who’d suffered some bad PTSD, had a mental breakdown, and moved back home with my grandparents. Then, I met an alien, and my life completely changed.

Life aboard

The Radiance

was surprisingly simple; I had a well-paying job, food and housing were provided, and I didn’t need to worry about transportation ever. The spacefaring vessel was large—large enough to comfortably house over 300 crew members and hold dozens of research and recreational facilities, but it wasn’t so large I had to concern myself with a daily commute; it was maybe the size of a very small town—or a

massive

cruise ship.

They ghosted me away from earth and trained me up for a job only I could do; be the handler of a wildly dangerous alien lifeform genetically engineered to be the perfect lifeform. The mission aboard

The Radiance

was to find all the other escaped Predazoans with help from the only Predazoan that wasn’t a danger to us all, my little Evie.

Eve and I had an interesting relationship dynamic that’s for sure; sometimes she seemed like my pet, other times almost like a daughter, but then every once in a while she showed herself wildly alien, and I really had no idea what to make of it. She was one of the most dangerous creatures in the universe, but I trusted her completely—she was actually surprisingly gentle with me.

I’d been given my own private crew quarters, but honestly I hardly spent any time there. When I was free of any duties or training, I was usually hanging around Eve’s containment cell she was housed in for security reasons. Thankfully, they made it much more habitable, with a TV, a couch, a bed, and some other furnishings I’d requested to make it look less like a prison.

The Radiance

gathered all kinds of data on humanity while they’d been in orbit spying on us, including

exabytes

of downloaded media, allowing us access to pretty much every piece of human entertainment in existence. I spent most of my nights down there with little Evie—she was quite clingy and enjoyed watching earth shows and movies with me snuggled up on the couch together.

It was almost like a mini-vacation between classes and training, but of course it couldn’t last forever, and once my training was considered complete, it was time to start our mission hunting down the next Predazoan.

Little Evie lounged in my lap on the couch in her containment cell watching some earth anime from the fancy floating TV they’d provided us, when suddenly the cargo bay doors to the cell opened, and I saw Doctor Gorgam flanked by a few clandestine agents waiting for me.

“We’re going to have a mission briefing in the command center; your presence is required.” The green and red frog-man alien said to me, careful to stay behind the repulser field that kept Eve secure in the containment cell. The researchers didn’t think Eve was a danger anymore, but they were still quite nervous to be around her without protection—they’d seen what she was capable of.

For that matter, so did I, but I wasn’t scared of her.

I sighed and stood up from the couch, passing the remote off to Evie—who trilled angrily in her musical, gibberish language. She still always remained in the little goth-girl squid-princess form; I think she knew how cute I thought she looked like that. She could surely change her shape to be anything she wanted now with all the human biomass she’d consumed, but I think she was simply more comfortable in that form.

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I patted Evie’s head, and her trills died down as she nuzzled her head up into my hand, “Gotta get to work Evie—pay the bills, you understand.”

Evie fixed me with a flat glare with her big, adorable glowing yellow eyes, and then sunk deeper into the couch with an obvious pout. I just rolled my eyes and walked off towards the good doctor.

The research team had a few briefings over the last few days, trying to decide the next Predazoan to hunt down; I skipped out on most of those meetings, as their debates and reasoning usually went over my head. I might have a close bond with Evie, but I hardly knew anything about the Predazoans—or at least about the crazy science behind their creation.

I got to the doorway and Gorgam was quick to open the forcefield and then reactivated it once I was safely through. “We finally have a heading?” I asked.

Gorgam nodded, “Yes, we’ve decided which Predazoan to hunt next.”

I turned to wave at Evie one last time as we left, and she just turned away in a cute little huff, getting a quiet chuckle from me. I turned back to the doctor and the agents escorting us out into the hallway. “Is it a matter of going after a specific Predazoan, or more about location?”

The hallways of

The Radiance

reminded me of a ritzy cruise ship—the entire vessel was like a fancy, futuristic ocean-liner. The walkways were all matte black, framed in white, surrounded by walls and ceilings of rounded chrome. There was plenty of room to walk around, I never felt crowded anywhere I went through the vessel. It was so big, it was surprisingly easy to get lost.

Doctor Gorgam nodded along, “Location is the primary concern—a high population world is at great risk from a Predazoan. We also think it’s best to start off hunting a Gamma generation Predazoan for your first time in the field. It will be by no means easy, but Alpha-03 is overall much more dangerous than any Beta or Gamma Predazoan.”

I’d been to the command center a few times before; it looked like an assembly or even a lecture hall, with raised rows for seating, all facing a large, circular computer screen on the floor that projected holograms above it. There were over 40 people in the regular seats—a good number I recognized now—with six raised seats opposite them, the command council, as it were. Gorgam gave me a quick nod before taking his place with the command council, and I turned to find a seat in the general audience. Right away, Doctor Tillia—the gorgeous red devil alien I’d befriended—waved enthusiastically after me, indicating the seat next to her. I made my way up top to join her.

“Finally, the big day’s here.” She said eagerly, flashing me a brilliant smile.

“How’s the atmosphere? People hopeful? Do they believe Evie will be an asset?”

Tillia rolled her eyes, “It’s annoyingly divided between military and research right now; the research teams trust the bond between you and Alpha-03—I mean Eve.” She corrected quickly. I’d been harping on people to start calling Evie by her name rather than her clinical designation, “We’re the ones who’ve done the testing and see how she obeys you. But the soldiers and agents are still wildly resistant to the idea of following our lead.”

“Like, my lead, Evie’s lead, or the research team’s lead?”

Doctor Tillia giggled in that enticing way of hers, “All of the above, really. They want to head in guns blazing—or continue their spy game like they have been. They hate the idea of handing the reigns over to us. I think they’d just assume bombard any host planets with an orbital strike.”

My eyes grew wide, “We could

do

that?”

She waved it off quickly, “Oh no, not

The Radiance

itself; we’re a stealth and research vessel. Doesn’t mean those clandestine agents couldn’t call in some favors and make it happen though.”

I shook my head, looking around to see more agents and soldiers than researchers around us—and

they

thought Evie was dangerous.

A few more people filtered in—including my friend, Doctor Zyno, a classic green man kind of alien, who smiled apologetically as he made his way up to sit beside me. He looked down at the simple band on his wrist that automatically displayed a holographic clock when he looked at it, “One minute to spare.”

I rolled my eyes, “Poor time management exists amongst aliens too, eh?”

Zyno smirked, “I keep telling you, since humanity hasn’t joined the Empire yet,

you’re

the alien.”

“Alright, let’s get this briefing underway.” Clandestine Commander Durgo said from his seat at the command council. He was one of the main people in charge of the military side of things, specifically all the spy stuff. He looked like a large blue beetle with layers of plating over his face, four red slits for eyes, and a triangular black mask over his mouth that worked as some kind of voice modulator. He was bald but had a large horn that curved upwards about a foot at the top of his forehead. To his left was Doctor Gorgam, Doctor Wit, and Doctor Kianna. To the commander’s right was Captain Seash, a red lizardman alien who commanded the marines. Beside the lizardman was Captain Quinna who commanded the power armor soldiers—the heavy guns. Captain Quinna was a massive woman who looked like a humanoid tree—she

was

a sentient plant kind of alien, as strange as that might seem. The soldiers wore their military dress uniforms, with black and gold jackets, while the researchers wore their black and white lab coats—making the divide between the two groups even more obvious. I myself wore my black tactical pants and a black t-shirt made of some crazy comfortable futuristic material that seemed like armored silk—my appearance different from everyone else, another thing to make me stand out by myself.

Captain Seash leaned forward as he tapped at the console in front of him, and a large hologram of a planet blinked into existence before the assembly, “Imperial core world Entana has been confirmed to house the Predazoan Gamma-17; from our tracking after the destruction of planetoid research facility NX-947b, we believe she arrived approximately six cycles ago.”

“We’re sure Gamma-17 is on planet? Last we knew, we only got energy readings within Entana’s solar system.” A researcher asked.

Commander Durgo nodded, “My agents have confirmed she made it to the planet; there was a string of mysterious disappearances five to six cycles ago. The local authorities never determined the perpetrator, no bodies or remains found—no declared homicides.”

“It’s believed Gamma-17 was desperate to consume biomass before she could establish proper camouflage capabilities, it’s why the disappearances were so localized initially.” Doctor Wit added.

Tillia raised her hand, “

Initially

? Does that mean there’s been more disappearances?”

Commander Durgo nodded again, “Yes, but the authorities haven’t connected them with the initial spree. We believe Gamma-17 is being much more careful in acquiring more biomass and has been moving around a lot, travelling from city to city, only taking a few people every couple of days before moving on.”

I still didn’t know

why

the Predazoans were so focused on consuming more biomass. The way the researchers explained it, they could absorb and assimilate any organic matter into themselves, and they would improve and even perfect it. But I asked, to what end? If they were supposedly perfect lifeforms already, why did they need to absorb more biomass as though they were trying to perfect

themselves

? Evie didn’t seem to care about absorbing anymore biomass; she liked eating food because she enjoyed it, not because she was trying to perfect herself or anything. But of course, Evie was different from all the other Predazoans; she wasn’t focused on some crazy, instinctual drive for supremacy over all other lifeforms. Maybe that’s all it was for the other Predazoans—driven by pure instinct to kill and consume. It made them dangerous; it was why they needed to be contained or killed—the reason for our entire mission.

A glowing red line on the hologram planet indicated where the disappearances took place, and Commander Durggo gestured to a large area the line lead towards, “We believe we can intercept Gamma-17 here; we’re not sure if it was on purpose, but she’s slowly made her way to the capital city Tantalltera, the most densely populated city on the entire planet.”

“We also believe she would be more inclined to stay there longer, consuming more biomass and maybe even establish a permanent nest for herself.” Doctor Kianna added.

“

Nest

? Is the damn thing going to propagate?” A soldier called out quickly, causing muttering to stir within the assembly.

Doctor Gorgam waved his hands down to reign in silence, “Our simulations indicate they don’t possess the ability to produce more Predazoans, but their drive for control and supremacy lead us to believe they might seek to…

control

local populations.”

“Meaning?”

Gorgam steepled his hands together, “Remember, they exist as singular entity hiveminds; each individual cell is almost like its own body controlled within the Predazoan. We believe once they achieve significant biomass, they will seek to expand their hivemind to other creatures—assimilate living organisms, rather than kill and consume.” He clarified.

If the good doctor had been trying to calm or reassure anyone, he did a piss poor job of it as concerned rumblings swept through the audience.

“What, so we’re going to deal with zombie outbreaks eventually?” I asked.

“Those are mere

speculations

; we have no idea what instinct actually drives the Predazoans—what their end-goal is after accumulating significant biomass.” Doctor Wit added.

“What other speculations are there?” A marine asked, and I could see beside me Tillia and Zyno exchanged a worried glance.

“We believe the lifecycle of the Predazoans is as follows…” Doctor Killia started, and the planet hologram changed to show a Predazoan in its earliest stage—a little squid-orb with tentacles. “Stage one, accumulate biomass—kill and consume.” The hologram changed to look large and humanoid, “Stage two, assimilate and control local living organisms. Stage three, final merger.” The hologram shifted into a massive sphere, looking like a planet, “They take all the biomass and all their assimilated organisms and merge with the entire planet—become a living biomass planet.”

For everyone except the research team, this was news to them, and they promptly broke out in heated discussions of how they should all just start glassing planets hosting any Predazoans.

“Is that true?” I asked Tillia beside me.

She let out a quick sigh, “It’s only Kianna’s projections based on her behavioral studies; we have

no way

to confirm the Predazoan instinct.”

“Although, from the original sample of the ancient Predazoan discovered on the deep space asteroid, it was believed it come from some kind of organic planet—that’s where Kianna’s theory stems from.” Zyno added.

“So the ancient Predazoans did the same thing—take over and turn into planets?” I asked.

Tillia shook her head, “We honestly have no idea; some research indicates the ancient Predazoans were living planets, but the cloned Predazoans have been significantly altered and are more than likely drastically different than their progenitors.”

“Maybe the new Predazoan’s goal is to achieve their original form—become the living planet they were always meant to be. You lot baked them up in a lab to make it so they could turn

any

planet into their new true form.” I reasoned, “Maybe even eventually assimilate

multiple

planets together.”

Doctor Tillia placed a hand on my shoulder and looked in my eyes, “Adam, that’s all just speculation; we really have no way of knowing what the ancient Predazoans were beyond the myths and legends we’ve collected, just the same we have no way of knowing what drives the new Predazoans. For all we know, they just want to consume and grow their hiveminds as mere gluttons.”

Looking in Tillia’s eyes, I could see she was trying to convince herself as much as me. It made me realized how desperate the researchers were to contain this monumental fuck-up they all created; the researchers were probably more scared of the Predazoans than anyone else, knowing much more of what they were capable of. Plus, it probably wasn’t just a job for them like it would be for the soldiers; there was guilt there, and shame—they needed to fix their mistakes.

I put a hand on her back and smiled, “Well, we just have to make sure we round up all the loose Predazoans before we can even discover their instinctual drive.” I offered, and I saw her immediately calm and relax into my touch.

Doctor Zyno chuckled beside me, “Easier said than done…”

“If you’re all quite finished!” Captain Seash snapped, finally reigning in the chaos of the meeting, “It doesn’t matter what their goal, what their instinct, or what their drive is. I don’t care if they want to eat the whole planet or turn themselves into one, our entire mission is to capture, contain, or kill all the Predazoans who escaped into Imperial space—with

minimal

casualties.” He pressed, staring down the few soldiers who suggested destroying Predazoan worlds. “Our job is working in the shadows, and we’ll continue to live in the shadows as we sweep through the worlds, leaving the Imperial Citizens none the wiser.”

“That’s all well and good, but how can we be stealthy

and

fight against monsters who can eat entire planets?” A marine demanded, “Wouldn’t it take a great martial force to destroy one of these things?”

Doctor Gorgam held up a froggy hand, “Stealth actually works much better against the Predazoans anyway. Talking about glassing a planet, I should hope you all read the research materials provided; the only way to kill a Predazoan is with the destabilizing acid. So, we send a small team down to the planet, investigate the disappearances, follow the trail and find the nest, and once we have Gamma-17 in our sights, we make an initial effort to contain, and should that fail or lead to potential civilian casualties, we administer the acid to her core.”

And that’s where I come in—the investigation part. The Predazoan camouflage was too sophisticated for any of their scans or sensors, so it would be up to me and Eve to help locate Gamma-17. I could see a few eyes on me when the doctor said that—hardened marines and soldiers relying on this random human bonded to a dangerous Predazoan to lead them to their target, who was

also

a dangerous Predazoan. For the first time, I really felt the weight of that responsibility.

For the rest of the mission briefing, I kind of tuned out; they continued talking logistics, gear, staging, drop points, communications codes, check-ins, all things the marines and agents would need to be aware of to maintain the safety of the investigation crew. For my side of things, there wasn’t much we could do to plan; I was to command Eve to get us any possible advantage in finding Gamma-17. There’d be a lot of reconnaissance with the soldiers, lots of fieldwork from the researchers, and then there’d just be Eve and me tagging along, trying to direct them if we could. To be honest, I actually had no idea if we’d even be much use—didn’t know if Eve would listen to me in finding another Pradazoan, and even if she did, how would she locate them if they had such perfect camouflage?

No sense borrowing trouble; we could deal with all that once we were planet-side.

***

After the briefing, I grabbed some dinner with my friends, then headed back to Evie’s containment cell with a bagful of synthesized chocolates. I knew if I was to take Eve on the mission, I would need plenty of bribery for her to actually obey me.

It wasn’t like Eve misbehaved or anything, she was just wildly playful; she listened to me when I got serious, but sometimes it would take a few commands before she obeyed. She was like a mischievous little kid, and the funny thing was I

knew

she understood me now; before back on earth, we weren’t sure what all she understood from us. But after consuming all that human biomass from the government agents who attacked us, I could see a new…

intelligence

in her eyes—a distinct understanding. Odd as it might seem, I think she was trying to hide it from me; I remembered the researchers told me Predazoans could be smarter than super computers, but Eve certainly didn’t act like that. Sometimes I wondered if she played dumb since her new intelligence came from killing and consuming humans; maybe she was ashamed of what she’d done or was afraid

I’d

be afraid if she showed off her newfound intelligence. Or maybe I was just way off-base, and her new understanding didn’t correlate to human intelligence. Maybe she really was just a smart kind of dumb animal.

It didn’t matter though—smart, dumb, or anything in between, I still love my little alien, and even though she was a thousand times more deadly and dangerous than I was, I felt weirdly protective over.

I made it to back to her containment cell and opened the cargo door, and I could see her brighten up on the couch when she saw me, but she turned away in a huff again, pretending to be mad. I opened the repulser forcefield and closed it behind me as I went to her on the couch. Immediately, she snuggled into my lap when I sat down, but still looked away from me with her arms crossed.

I decided to tease her a little, “You know Evie, it hurts my feelings when you give me the cold shoulder like that. Makes me feel like you don’t love me after all…” I said sadly, trying to sell the bit.

Evie turned back to me as though she’d been zapped, her glowing yellow eyes bright with worry. She flung her arms around me and wrapped a dozen tentacles around me too, and then started trilling apologetic gibberish at me, nuzzling her head into my chest.

I just laughed and pulled her tighter against me, “I’m just kidding Evie, I know you love me.”

Eve stopped her trilling and looked at me with an adorable angry expression, her cheeks all puffed out like she was holding in a scream. I laughed again and kissed her forehead, then settled into the couch and pulled her up against me, “And I love you too, sweet-thing, never forget that.”

Magnanimous as always, Eve huffed out a quick sigh and let it all go, then settled herself against me.

I decided I didn’t want to talk about the mission yet; we’d be opening a warp channel tomorrow and heading through void space and would arrive at Entana in just a few days. We had time—didn’t need to get all serious yet.

I was content to snuggle with my deadly little alien and watch earth TV with her on the couch for now. All the doom and gloom could come later.