TBT: Alien Salvation

Somebody's knocking...

 

“Who is it? Are we being attacked?” she asked, reaching for her clothes.

There was no answer. She was talking to an empty room. The Kalquorians had disappeared in a rush of movement her eyes couldn’t begin to follow.

After yanking her clothes on, Lindsey hurried into the main cabin of the shuttle where the aliens were gathered. She gaped. The walls and floor of the ship were missing, leaving them open to the sun-drenched beach. 

Her stomach lurched. She was too terrified to scream. A crowd of about two dozen Earther men, their expressions hostile, surrounded them on either side. All were armed with guns in holsters. Fists wielded baseball bats.

After that endless horrified moment, Lindsey realized the walls and floor weren’t gone after all. Instead, she looked at a wrap-around vid image of what was going on outside the shuttle. There was still a solid metal surface between her and the unfriendly mob. Her heart learned to beat again.

Japohn’s voice was noncommittal, his expression almost amused as Lindsey stepped close to the clan. “They no welcome us as you. No trade sex for food, I think.”

Lindsey snorted breathless laughter, startled at the big brute’s ability to joke. Japohn just kept surprising her.

A man near the main hatch of the ship shouted, “Come out, demons! Come out or we’ll come in and get you!” His close-cropped head was squarish, like a block of wood.

He was dressed in military camouflage, the uniform loosely encasing his spare frame. The muscles on his tanned arms, laid bare by his rolled-up cuffs, were whip-thin. He could have been the poster boy for the hard work of survival.

“We speak to them?” Bacoj asked Lindsey.

She blew out a breath as worry grew. She recognized the group’s speaker as Clive Marsh.  He was a man Lindsey had unaffectionately dubbed as ‘Blockhead’, both for his physical appearance and his attitude. She saw other familiar faces in the mob as well. She hoped with all her being the shuttle’s defenses were sound enough to keep these men out.

Lindsey told the Dramok, “Don’t waste your breath. I’ve seen them around, and they’re strong adherents of the former government’s sanctioned religion. They don’t want to talk to you except to maybe torture you for information.”

Bacoj frowned. “No need torture. We tell truth.”

“They wouldn’t like what you have to say.”

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