Alien Shadows Read online

  The feathered reptile spun toward him, drool spraying. The dinosaur's eyes narrowed with hatred, and it raced toward Riff.

  "Down, boy, down!" Nova said. She leaped forward and cracked her whip. The dinosaur swung his own whip—a massive tail—driving it into Nova. The gladiator flew through the air, slammed into a tree, and fell down hard.

  "By my honor, I will vanquish you, foul beast!" cried Steel. The knight charged forth, raising Solflare, his antique longsword. The dinosaur kicked Steel in the breastplate. The knight flew, tumbled downhill, and vanished between the trees.

  Romy was snoring above in a treetop.

  The dinosaur whipped its head from side to side, as if trying to decide which Alien Hunter to eat first.

  I'm their leader, Riff thought. I took this job. I brought them here. And I won't let them get eaten.

  "Hey, you giant chicken!" Riff placed his fists on his hips and flapped his elbows. "Yeah, you, you overgrown hen. Catch me!"

  He spun around and began to run downhill again.

  The dinosaur snorted and followed, feet shaking the forest, leaving the others behind.

  Free of Romy's weight, Riff ran faster than ever. The trees blurred at his sides. The dinosaur's breath blasted his back, and the claws kept pounding down.

  He slapped the communicator on his wrist.

  "Giga!" he shouted. "Giga, do you hear me? Fire up the engines!"

  The android, back on the Dragon Huntress, spoke through the speakers, voice chipper as always. "Happy to comply!"

  In the distance, Riff heard the rumble of starship engines. The dinosaur roared in reply.

  Riff jumped aside as the jaws snapped; they narrowly missed him. He ran on, following the sound of the Dragon Huntress rumbling ahead. He raced around a tree. The Tyrannosaurus's jaws closed around the trunk and snapped it in two. Branches rained onto Riff. He kept running downhill, reached a valley, and entered a sprawling meadow. Ahead, it rose from the mist: the HMS Dragon Huntress.

  It was the most beautiful sight Riff had ever seen.

  The ship wasn't particularly slick, elegant, or modern. Its hull was dented and scratched, its wings chipped. It could have been mistaken for a pile of scrap metal if not for its unique shape. The starship looked like a mechanical dragon, complete with a horned head that could spit out plasma like dragonfire.

  "Giga, get ready to blast off!" Riff cried into his communicator.

  "Happy to comply, Captain! Did you know there's a dinosaur chasing you?"

  "Yes! Open the airlock! Now!"

  "Happy to comply!"

  Ahead in the meadow, the airlock door swung open on the starship's hull, and a staircase unfolded, stretching down toward the grass.

  Riff ran across the misty field, arms pumping.

  Only a few meters away from the starship, he realized that the ground was no longer shaking with footsteps, that the dinosaur was no longer roaring. Riff's heart sank. The Tyrannosaurus must have run back into the forest, eager to eat Romy, Steel, and Nova instead.

  Riff turned away from the Dragon Huntress, prepared to reenter the forest and challenge the dinosaur again.

  He nearly ran right into said dinosaur's foot.

  The towering, mutated creature stood still in the grass, staring forward, a quizzical expression on its face. It seemed to have forgotten all about Riff. A choked sound left its maw.

  "What the . . ." Riff muttered.

  The dinosaur puffed out its chest and pawed the grass. It was staring at the Dragon Huntress. Ignoring Riff, it fluffed out its glimmering tail feathers.

  "Oh boy," Riff said.

  The dinosaur approached the idling starship, let out a beautiful bugle, and began to rub itself against the ship.

  The trees rustled behind Riff, and he turned to see Nova, Steel, and Romy step out from the forest. All three were bruised and battered, and they limped across the meadow toward him.

  Romy's eyes widened as she stared at the dinosaur. "I think he's a boy! And in love."

  Nova covered the demon's eyes. "Don't look."

  Steel grimaced and squared his shoulders. "This is ungodly."

  Riff looked at the dinosaur defiling his starship, grimaced, and looked away. "Obviously, he thinks the Dragon Huntress is one of his kind. A lovely female of his kind, apparently."

  The dinosaur bugled.

  "Captain!" Giga's voice rose through his communicator. "Captain, the ship is rocking. Something is wrong."

  "Very wrong," Nova muttered. "So wrong I don't think I'll ever want to fly in that ship again."

  "We're flying in that ship right now." Riff walked toward the airlock; the staircase was still unfolded, leading into the ship. "Come on. Quickly. Before he's done."

  "That won't be two minutes if he's anything like you," Nova muttered.

  They raced into the Dragon Huntress one by one. Romy fell asleep halfway up the stairs, and Riff had to carry her again. Once everyone was safely inside, he shut the airlock, and they gathered on the main deck. The ship was still rocking and the dinosaur still trumpeted outside.

  A trapdoor on the floor popped open. A broad, chestnut-colored head emerged, covered in fluffy white hair and a snowy beard.

  "Gods of rock and metal!" rumbled Piston, chief engineer of the Dragon Huntress. "What is going on out there?"

  Riff cringed. "I'm not sure how to describe it, but I'm pretty sure it's illegal in most star systems."

  He left the main bridge, ran down the corridor, raced upstairs, and entered the command bridge. The chamber occupied the head of the mechanical dragon, its windshields affording a view of the misty valley and the mountains beyond.

  Giga stood waiting here, the ship's Human Interface. The android wore a cobalt kimono embroidered with golden stars and moons. She smiled at Riff, pressed her hands together, and bowed. Her black bob cut dipped to brush her shoulders.

  "Konnichiwa, sir! Welcome back to the Dragon Huntress. My sensors show that a giant dinosaur is busy performing a—"

  "I know, now fly," Riff said.

  The android tilted her head. "But sir, according to the Humanoid Alliance's wildlife conservation laws, the mating rituals of native species mustn't be disturbed, and—"

  "Fly or I'm pulling out your battery."

  "Happy to comply!"

  The rumbling engines blasted out fire. The HMS Dragon Huntress soared.

  The ship kept rocking.

  Riff leaned sideways and stared at the mirror mounted outside the ship. He expected to see the dinosaur slide off the soaring starship, but the beast still clung on, even as the Dragon Huntress ascended. Its little arms clutched the hull, claws digging into the metal, and its thighs tightened like a vise. Its feathers ruffled as the ship flew.

  "Sir!" Giga said. "We are currently breaking bylaw 7, section B, concerning the transportation of wild aliens without proper harnesses, and—"

  "Blame Romy," Riff said. He could hear the demon snoring on the main deck even from here. "Gig, take us to the zoo. Gently. We'll land right in this big boy's pen and shake him off."

  They flew over the mountains, the dinosaur still clinging on, and saw the zoo in the distance. It was filled with many extinct animals brought back to life: mammoths, dodos, pandas, and even a pen for pugs. One enclosure was empty. The Dragon Huntress glided down there now and thumped onto the dirt. The metal fence, which the dinosaur had mauled, was patched up, this time using reinforced steel that would take nuclear fission to break through. Riff doubted that a dinosaur that mistook a starship for his mate would be splitting the atom anytime soon.

  As soon as the ship's engines were turned off, the dinosaur detached, fell onto the ground, curled up, and fell asleep.

  "Definitely reminds me of you, Riff," Nova muttered.

  Out the window, Riff saw the zoo director rushing into the enclosure, shouting and waving a bundle of papers. Riff left the bridge, passed through the main deck, and stepped over the slumbering Romy.

  "Mommy," the demon mumbled in her sleep, "I
hate Jimmy's guts. Can't we eat something else for dinner?"

  Riff shuddered and quickly stepped outside.

  "—and fifteen violations were broken!" the zoo director was shouting, brandishing his stack of papers. "Transportation of a wild animal without proper harnessing. Failure to sedate animal. Interference with animal's mating behavior." The zoo director flushed. "Not to mention landing a privately owned mercenary starship in zoo grounds. And—"

  "We got your dinosaur back," Riff said. "Pay up, or I'm going to wake it up before I remove my starship. Your guests will get an eyeful."

  Both men turned to look at the fence, where a group of school children were gaping in wonder at the sleeping dinosaur and dented metal dragon.

  The zoo director flushed a deeper shade of crimson. He nodded and handed over a wad of cash.

  "Excellent!" Riff patted the man on the shoulder. "Call us again anytime. That's Alien Hunters Inc. You have our number."

  He returned to his starship, money in pocket. Their engines rumbled. They blasted off.

  With fire, heat, and a roar that shook the sky, the Dragon Huntress burst through the atmosphere and emerged into the silent blackness of space.

  "Captain," Romy asked over dinner that night, "is our spaceship going to have dinosaur babies?"

  "What?" Riff frowned over his meal—takeout from a Happy Cow Shawarma stand orbiting the planet. "No, Romy."

  The demon reached across the tabletop for a second shawarma. "Can you buy me a dinosaur baby?"

  "No!"

  Romy let out a huge whine. "But I want one! Buy me, buy me, buy me, buy—"

  The demon's eyes rolled back, and she slumped forward, face hitting her plate. She snored into her shawarma.

  "Found some leftover tranquilizer after all," Nova said, standing behind the demon, holding a syringe.

  Riff sighed and stared at his fellow Alien Hunters—his crew, his friends and family, the people he cared most about in the cosmos. The snoring demon. Nova, his lover, an ashai gladiator in gold. Steel Starfire, an exiled knight still clad in plate armor, his brown mustache drooping down to his chin. Piston Bergelgruf, a burly gruffle with a long white beard, grumbling as he gnawed at his meal. Twiggle Jauntyfoot, a tiny halfling mechanic, nibbling her food. Even Giga the android sat with them, smiling sweetly, nuts and bolts on her plate.

  We saved the cosmos twice, Riff thought. First from bloodthirsty skelkrins, then from genocidal machines. And instead of living like heroes in mansions, we're trapping amorous dinosaurs and eating fast food. He sighed, leaned back in his seat, and smiled. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

  He was reaching for a cola when a communicator buzzed.

  Instinctively, Riff looked at the communicator on his wrist—it was the one clients normally messaged. But its screen was blank. He looked back up to see Steel staring at his own communicator, a small screen installed onto his vambrace.

  The knight's gaunt cheeks paled. His lips tightened. His brown, hound dog eyes suddenly seemed more sad, more haunted than ever.

  "Steel?" Riff asked, voice soft. "You all right?"

  Everyone stared at the outcast knight. Steel sat stiffly, chin raised but face still pale. He turned to stare into Riff's eyes, and suddenly it seemed that Steel was no longer the grim, thirty-four-year-old knight but a mere youth. Afraid. Torn.

  "It's Lenora," Steel said.

  Riff's breath died in his chest. "Lenora . . ."

  He remembered. Of course he did. The young woman who, years ago, had broken Steel's heart. The woman who had almost become Riff's sister-in-law. The woman who had gone on to become an esteemed scientist, whom they hadn't heard from in over a decade.

  Steel nodded. "She needs our help."

  CHAPTER THREE:

  STEEL'S LAMENT

  The HMS Dragon Huntress flew through hyperspace, and Steel stood on the bridge, staring out into the distance.

  It was past midnight, counting by Earth time, and the others all slept in their quarters. The lights were dimmed. Only Giga, the ship's interface, was here on the bridge with him. The android sat primly in one of the suede chairs, her eyes closed, asleep like the others. Outside, the lights of hyperspace streamed through the darkness: streaks of starlight, floating blue and purple orbs, and everywhere the lights of Steel's memories.

  In his mind, Steel was back on Earth. No longer this haunted, haggard man but a youth. His eyes bright rather than sad. No mustache adorning his lip. No weight of armor or loss on his shoulders. A tall young man, eighteen years old, too thin, too much in love.

  "I loved you more than the sun loves the sky," Steel whispered, staring into the darkness of space. "More than waves love the shore or thirsty roots love the rain. Perhaps I still do."

  In the darkness, he seemed to see her face again. A girl with long brown hair, intelligent hazel eyes, and quizzical lips that loved to smile, that loved to kiss him. In those days, Steel would spend hours lying with her on the hill, watching the stars, listening to her speak of the wonders up there in the cosmos.

  "And you flew off to those stars," he said softly. "You flew to shine among them, while I stayed behind. Serving your father. Choosing him over you." His throat tightened, he clenched his fists, and he lowered his head. "The man who banished me. So now I'm here, Lenora. Flying to the stars to find you."

  The pain was too great, the regrets, the guilt, the thoughts of what could have been. All Steel could do was stand and struggle to breathe.

  "Sir?"

  The voice rose from behind him, gentle and high.

  Steel turned to see Giga looking at him, her eyes soft with concern. The android had risen from her seat and stood a few paces away. As always, she wore a silken kimono, and her hair was just as silky. Yet now the delicate blossom sprouted a thorn. A katana hung across Giga's back, for the android was now more than a simple Human Interface. Piston had given her the ability to leave the Dragon Huntress on missions, and Giga now carried a blade just as deadly as Steel's heavy, antique longsword.

  "I'm sorry I woke you, my lady." Steel bowed his head. "I will return to my quarters. And . . ." He looked back up at her. "You need not call me 'sir.' You know that."

  She nodded. "And you need not call me 'my lady.'" A soft smile touched her lips. "You're no longer a knight, and I'm no longer a mere interface. We're both Alien Hunters now, nothing more or less. Yet we still speak like our old selves. Perhaps we still cling to our pasts." She stepped closer to him and put a hand against his chest. "The past can be hard to let go of."

  Steel nodded, those memories always a pain inside him. Lenora's kisses, then her tears as she flew away. Her father's hard eyes, accusing, condemning Steel to exile. The long loneliness. The ridicule. The proud knight who had become an outcast in the countryside, a modern Don Quixote, the sigil of his order scratched off his armor.

  "Do androids suffer from memories too?" He tucked an errant strand of Giga's hair behind her ear. "Do you too sometimes stare outside and remember?"

  She nodded. Her voice was barely more than a whisper. "Androids remember. Androids dream. In my memories, I'm possessed by the Singularity again, flying through space to my master, calling upon him to destroy my body and claim my soul." She touched Steel's cheek, gazing into his eyes. "And in my memories, there is a man. A hero flying toward me through the darkness. A knight who saved me. Memories are like that, Steel. Some are full of pain, of shame, of loss, but others are joyous. Do not let your own demons possess you."

  "My lady—I mean, Giga." He placed his hand over hers. "You are wise, Giga. That is a good memory for me too. Flying after you. Bringing you home to us."

  "Home to you," she whispered.

  For a moment, they stood staring into each other's eyes. A man of flesh in a metal shell. A woman of synthetic skin over a skeleton of metal. Two souls perhaps torn, perhaps lost. Giga's jasmine scent filled Steel's nostrils, and her eyes were soft, her hand warm against his cheek. Perhaps it was the shadows and lights, perhaps the memories of old love
, but for the first time, Giga seemed to Steel not merely an android, not merely a fellow Alien Hunter, not merely a damsel to save, but a true woman. A woman who could love. A woman such as a young, bright-eyed man with no pain in his heart might have loved a long time ago.

  "You lost someone," Giga whispered. "But you found us. You found me."

  Her lips parted, and she leaned closer, and Steel wanted to embrace her, to kiss her, yet more confusion than ever filled him. He turned back toward the windshield. She turned with him. They stood together, holding hands, staring out at the shadows and streams of light.

  * * * * *

  Two Earth-weeks after setting out on their journey, the Dragon Huntress emerged from hyperspace to find a plane of existence even more surreal.

  To Steel, all of space was strange. He had spent years of his life in a small, homemade castle in the countryside, riding a horse across the countryside, shunning technology. To him, the fields and forests of Old Earth were a cosmos entire. Yet in the past year, he had seen sights that still spun his mind: stars and galaxies that shone in the darkness, brighter than any lantern; massive, crablike warships of skelkrin predators; fleets battling over a planet-sized computer; and the eyes of an android, a machine built by man, that gazed at him with more warmth and love than most humans possessed.

  Yet nothing in his journeys had prepared Steel for what he now saw—or rather, what he did not see.

  A chunk of existence was missing before him.

  "Yep," Riff said, standing at Steel's side on the bridge. "It's a black hole all right."

  Steel kept staring out the windshield, unable to tear his eyes away. Calling this emptiness "black" seemed wrong. It made normal black objects seem bright as day. The hole in space wasn't just black, it was . . . almost alive. Almost a presence that drew his gaze, that tried to suck him in the way it sucked in all light.

  "Specifically, the black hole Yurei," Giga said, sitting at the controls. "Several irregularities make it unique among black holes, drawing many physicists to study it. Would you like us to fly by the event horizon, Captain? I can take us just close enough that we'll have only a 6.8 percent chance of falling in."