Orion Colony Complete Series Boxed Set J.N. Chaney (books for new readers .txt) 📖

“6673 to 1,” Iris answered.

“What?” I asked.

“The odds,” Iris explained.

“Oh,” I said, and then decided I needed to choose my words more carefully when in the presence of a Cognitive.

“Come on,” called Stacy. “The sooner we find out what’s going on in there, the sooner we can get back and start figuring out a course of action for the infected.”

“And for our Disciple friend who’s still skulking around the colony,” I reminded her.

“Maybe the infected will get to him first,” she replied.

We passed through the open stone doors, entering a long corridor that slanted down ever so slightly. In a few meters, we were able to see that Arun had been right. There was a faint yellow glow coming from somewhere farther down the hall and to the right.

“I’m going to take point,” Arun said. Her voice left no recourse for argument. “Dean, behind me. Stacy, you bring up the rear.”

“You sure you don’t want me to take the lead?” I felt compelled to ask. I knew Arun was better versed in these types of things. Still, I had to offer.

“No, just maintain trigger discipline and stay focused.” Arun jerked her chin to the finger on my trigger. “Finger only touches the trigger when you’re about to discharge your weapon.”

“Yeah, sure,” I said, edging my finger away.

We continued down the sloping walkway, one at a time. There was no sound. There was nothing but darkness, and in the darkness, the faintest glowing yellow light.

My heart continued to pound in my chest, maybe even faster than it had been while I was racing away from the mob of infected. The walls of my mouth were dry as we turned the corner and came face to face with the source of the yellow glow.

To our right, a chamber opened in a massive circular room. The walls were smooth—even more than crafted steel. I knew the entire chamber was fashioned from stone, but I couldn’t tell how. There were no imperfections, no lines or breaks in the rock. It was smooth and shiny, almost reminding me of marble.

As far as I could tell, we were alone. The lights on our rifles swung this way and that, examining every corner of the chamber.

In the middle of the room was a circular control station. On the control station, a yellow symbol pulsated with life.

“Can you still hear us? What are you seeing?” Elon asked over the comm unit.

“We’re in a large room with some kind of device in the center,” Arun answered. “No contact with anything or anyone yet. I—”

A wheezing sound from the far wall brought all our rifles up at once.

A panel in the far wall lifted from the ground in a hiss of steam. A panel extended from the stone, as though from nothing, and in a place where there had been no indication of such a thing.

The fight or flight instinct swept through us all, so much that I could feel it emanate from every single one of my friends. Adrenaline pumped through my veins like I was about to be in the fight of my life. I lifted the rifle to my shoulder, ready for anything.

But I could never have prepared myself for what appeared next.

It had two legs and two arms, but that was where the similarity between humans and whatever this was had ended. Thick, hide-like skin covered its body and a reptilian face blinked back at us.

Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised. Maybe I should have expected it. I mean, so far, I’d heard of monsters snatching people out of the mist and seen infected colonists and rhino-like creatures in the jungle. But despite all of that, this was altogether different.

It was truly alien.

The creature stepped out of the chamber with his arms held wide. I guessed that was its way of trying to seem non-threatening, but who could even say? I knew absolutely nothing of its culture or communication. There was no way to know what it wanted or how it would react to us.

There were three fingers and three toes on each of its appendages. A thick tail followed behind. It wore a tight-fitting suit that left an opening for its hands and feet. It looked like the suit was made of one piece of material.

Yellow eyes blinked at us. A thin tongue snaked out of a wide mouth with short, stubby teeth.

We stood there staring at each other for far too long.

“Holy sh—”

“What is it?” Elon asked. “Have you made contact with anything yet?”

“Yeah, I guess you could say that,” I answered.

I ripped my eyes from the face of the reptilian creature that stood about four meters tall. It didn’t seem to be carrying any kind of weapon.

“Can you understand us?” Arun asked. “Can you communicate?”

The alien cocked his head to the side. It looked us up and down as if he were as shocked and awestruck to see us as we were to see it.

“Tch tch te shay,” it said, making a slithering sound in the back of his throat. “Shen tsya sith.”

“Nope,” I said. “Definitely don’t understand alien.”

“May I try?” Iris asked over our comms. “If I can speak with the alien, perhaps I can work out some common language patterns. At least enough to begin a dialogue.”

“Be my guest,” Arun said, removing the earpiece. She extended the small device toward the alien.

It took about an hour, but it felt like minutes.

Back and forth the alien clicked its teeth and made the sounds from the back of his throat. Iris began to mimic the sound, repeating them back and at times coming up with words of her own. The Cognitive was not only learning a language from scratch, but it seemed as if she was doing so in record time.

After the first few hours, the little alien began motioning furiously and talking with Iris. What looked like a grin passed over the creature’s thin lips and spread across his face. I had