Somewhat Alien: The Station (Terran Trilogy Book 2) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  copyright

  Discover Other Titles by Sheron McCartha

  Acknowledgments

  The Station

  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 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Interesting Tidbits on the Author

  Somewhat Alien

  (Terran Trilogy book 2)

  by

  Sheron Wood McCartha

  Digital Imagination Publishing

  Beaverton, Oregon

  [email protected]

  Copyright 2017 by Sheron Wood McCartha

  SOMEWHAT ALIEN

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, digital, electronic, or otherwise, or conveyed via the internet or a website without prior permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotes embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, or events in this novel are inventions of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to anyone living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  Cover art by Toni Boudreault

  Published by Digital Imagination Publishing

  Beaverton, Oregon

  ISBN 978-0-9978274-2-2

  Discover other books

  by

  Sheron Wood McCartha

  Available in print and eBook on Amazon

  https://www.amazon.com/Sheron-Wood-McCartha/e/B0045K0HD6

  The Alysian Universe Series

  Caught in Time: Book 1

  A Dangerous Talent for Time: Book 2

  Cosmic Entanglement: Book 3

  Past the Event Horizon: Book 4

  Space Song: Book 5

  Touching Crystal: Book 6

  Someone’s Clone: Book 7

  Time’s Equation: Book 8

  The Terran Trilogy

  A World Too Far

  Somewhat Alien

  Acknowledgements

  Once again, I want to thank the many people who have helped me with this book.

  My Beaverton Thursday Night writing group has worked with me for several years and, by now, knows my writing foibles. For their eagle eyes and willingness to travel on this journey through my Alysian Universe, I thank Clayton, Ted, C.J. and Diana.

  Special thanks also go out to Cathy Reynolds whose sharp pen and diligent editing has made this story so much better. She began as a fan and has become a friend.

  Also, Scott Wood has sacrificed precious time from his busy schedule to make comments, and once again, encourage my writing. Thanks. Your support is the fuel that keeps me going.

  Finally, thanks to my daughter, Lauren, whose enthusiasm for my stories delights me and to my husband, Bland, who encourages me. It means a lot.

  The Station

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  Chapter 1

  A New World

  At the edge of consciousness, Commander Elise Fujeint, series II, became aware that someone or something had invaded her room. She fought desperately to wake up and rose upright in bed with a gasp. She must have fallen asleep with the light on. Blinking, she watched a glowing ball form into a shape before her until she stared at the impossibility of an angel gently smiling down on her. Letting out a shout, she activated her emergency alert.

  “Be not afraid, Elise,” it said. “I’ll watch over and protect you.”

  She stared dumbfounded at what her eyes barely believed.

  Outside in the ship’s corridor, booted footsteps thundered toward her.

  Her left hand clutched bedcovers while her right hand quested for a phaser. A humanlike figure, surrounded by light, dressed in white, beamed down upon her. Hampered by sleep-drenched eyes, she squinted at the hazy image, attempting to discern details. A face of seeming perfection with stern, intent golden eyes gazed at her. Incredible wings wafted gently at its back as it floated before her.

  Raising an arm, the angel said, “Have courage. Lead your people with strength into this new world. I will be with you.”

  As the boots stopped at her entry, the apparition winked out, leaving only darkness and confusion.

  The entrance’s override activated at the same time as she unlocked it.

  Merek stood breathing heavily, phaser raised. “Are you all right? I got an alert.”

  With light-blinded eyes, she groped to flip on the lights. “I saw…” Now that she had to describe it, she felt ridiculous.

  “You saw….?”

  She rolled over and grabbed a tumbler of water that she kept by her bed. With a few quick gulps, she downed half while her bodyguard put away his weapon. “I saw an angel.”

  His jaw dropped, his eyes widened, then his brow crinkled. “An angel? Like in the old Earth religion?”

  Rubbing her face, she nodded. “Sounds crazy when I say it out loud.”

  “No, not crazy, exactly.” He scratched his face. “Maybe you were having a vivid dream. Only stands to reason after all you’ve been through. I mean hundreds of years of cryo would be enough for anyone, but then battling a mutiny, black holes, uninhabitable alien worlds, a ship pandemic, and finally, you find a world where we may be able to live on. I’d be dreaming wild stuff too...if I ever dreamed.”

  “It seemed so real.”

  “Did it threaten you?”

  “No, it actually promised to protect me.”

  “Hey, that’s my job.”

  Pushing up a pillow behind her for support, she became abruptly aware she wore only a skimpy sleepsuit. She grabbed a robe off a chair, dressed, and ran a hand through her hair.

  While she gathered herself together, Merek stalked around the room trying to gather evidence of the invasion but found nothing. He returned to her side, his eyes perplexed.

  “There’s no sign of anyone or anything being in here,” he said, giving one final glance around.

  She didn’t want to dwell on what was becoming an embarrassing situation. “Speaking of your job, I want you to check in with our team for tomorrow.” She took another sip of water. “Make certain everyone is on the same page and understands that I lead the negotiations. Also, I want everyone to wear quarantine gear for our little space station inspection tour. The natives seem overly concerned with contamination issues, and the atmosphere of their planet is saturated with heavy quantities of particulates. In addition, the weather is oddly out of kilter. Jensen suspects a recent asteroid or meteorite strike. There is the possibility one of their regions exploded an atomic bomb, but that would cause more radiation than our sensors detected. I can’t rule it out. Those we asked about the damage acted twitchy.”

  “Twitchy?”

 
“Nervous. Preoccupied. You know, like not giving out full answers. Something’s going on. We need to learn what. As crazy as I sound talking about angels and apparitions, we genuinely don’t know what inhabits this planet. Don’t be fooled by how human the indigenous species appears. This is an alien world, and we have no idea what exists here or how it operates.”

  Eyes darting about, Merek asked, “Do you require me to stay?”

  She batted at the air. “No, I’m fine; you need to go. You have responsibilities. I’m sorry if I disturbed you. Most likely, it was a silly dream. I certainly would like a protective angel watching over me but, more likely, I’ll have to battle on my own to carve out a place for us on this planet.”

  “You’re not alone. The fleet’s behind you, Commander.”

  She grimaced and took another sip of water. “The Alysians plan to isolate us on a ridiculous space station before letting us down to their world…sort of like Ellis Island served for American immigrants. I’m not real keen on the idea, but we may have no alternative. I understand their concern for alien contagion, but it’s really inconvenient. However, it will give us a chance to investigate their planet and what may await us there. We don’t need to combat another plague like we did that last one.”

  His face paled at the idea.

  She sighed. “Go on, I need some sleep and so do you. Tomorrow’s a big day.”

  He nodded and left.

  Hours later, she lay awake, still staring at the ship’s ceiling, wondering what kind of world waited below. Her sleep deprived mind sorted through various scenarios, considering what needed to be done and worried about what future was in store for her twenty-eight desperate ships.

  After centuries of searching, the fleet finally had found a habitable planet, which held a large population of intelligent life. What kind of reception awaited them? Would they be able to get along?

  Chapter 2

  A Temporary Home

  Trajan Merek, series II, wrinkled his nose. “This place stinks.”

  “Merek…” Elise couldn’t believe what he was saying.

  The Alysian ambassador hastily kicked away a chunk of trash and brushed thick gloves across his contamination suit. “Commander, it’s merely temporary quarters. We have air filters being installed and a cleanup crew on the way.”

  Merek splayed out his hands. “Our cleaning bots…”

  “Merek!” Commander Elise Fujeint glared up at her guard. His muscles bunched, and his jaw clenched at her rebuke. She had advised him earlier not to divulge any knowledge of advanced technology, and here he was blurting out information about the ships’ possession of high tech robots.

  The Alysian contingent traded questioning looks, moving awkwardly in their bulky white outfits.

  Elise Fujeint, Commander of Earth’s invading fleet, murmured, “My twenty-eight ships can’t maneuver around this small space station, much less find comfortable accommodations for all my people inside. We don’t have the patience to wait very long on bureaucrats to give us permission to land.” She threw them a meaningful glare, causing each one in the group to pale at the remark. Twenty-eight ships were twenty-seven more than the natives currently possessed.

  Eight inhabitants of this world they called Alysia comprised the welcoming committee. Each one was well wrapped in a protective quarantine suit as if her people held some form of taint. It stuck in her craw. They’d been officially introduced, but it was hard to tell what or who was beneath the protective attire and assign individual faces.

  Not one woman accompanied their welcoming committee and, by that omission, she deduced a society where males might dominate. Too bad. Hopefully, their society was flexible enough to deal with a female commander. She didn’t want the hassle of dealing with arrogant males.

  Her team had located one local spaceship of primitive construction, so the natives might be getting extremely nervous watching twenty-eight alien ships orbit their world. Little did they realize only two carried any sort of serious weapons. They were exploration, not military, but she wasn’t about to mention that fact to uneasy natives.

  At the center of the group stood a male named Richard Steele. He’d led the Alysian contingent at first contact. She’d marked him then, and now, recognized him again. When she’d heard his name, and similar others, their Anglo-Saxon sound had puzzled her. Also, they appeared frighteningly human. There was a mystery here she wanted to puzzle out. She had prepared herself for unusual lifeforms, not aliens who looked this human and familiar.

  She was drawn to the Richard Steele male for some inexplicable reason. Tall, with broad shoulders, he had an aristocratic face and eyes that seemed to see right through her, sending shivers up and down her spine. She’d been disconcerted by the electric feeling that passed through her when she looked at him and fought its pull. At present, he hid under a white hazmat suit, which thankfully dampened the effect. She’d tried to become familiar with the other greeters, but few made any impression since all were so well covered up.

  As if noticing her gaze, he flicked his eyes toward her and offered a wan smile from behind the glass faceplate. Stepping forward, he said, “Elise, by your own admission, your whole fleet almost perished in a deadly plague.”

  “It’s Commander Fujeint, please, and I’ll return the consideration by calling you Director Steele,” she said emphasizing titles rather than first names.

  He straightened, a bit taken aback. “As you wish, Commander.” Gathering his composure, he continued, “In our initial discussions, you mentioned that your ships carry plants and animals, which could possibly spread disease onto our planet and ravage our meager food supply. We are particularly vulnerable right now and need to protect ourselves from possible contamination, alien or otherwise.”

  He spread his well-formed hands out in a petition. “We want to accommodate you, but we certainly are not going to let all twenty-eight of your ships dump alien lifeforms on our planet without safeguards in place.”

  His words sounded mechanical coming out of the suit’s speaker. That was a shame, for she remembered the soft baritone in his voice from their first meeting before all the paranoia set in… and those bulky suits became the fashion statement.

  She glanced down at her translator as it scrolled the words in her language. Tate, their communications specialist, had provided her with deep learning tapes on the alien language, so she almost didn’t need the translator to understand their words. Regrettably, during his extensive communication with the Alysians while putting together the tapes, he’d also unwittingly divulged sensitive information concerning the fleet’s journey that might be used against them.

  She had to admit to the logic of their containment even if she felt trapped on the station. She would have insisted on the same if it had been her world. Wanting to negotiate for amenities to enhance the bare station, she didn’t know what the natives had to offer. She knew her ships could currently supply an adequate amount of food and water, but eventually their supplies would diminish. She needed to bargain for as much as she could right at the beginning as it was always the best time to get anything.

  She moved about, surveying a nearby area. “We will need to scour the station first. We can supply our own bedding and cooking utensils, but fresh food will be an immediate problem, and we hope you can supply some. Even so, my people feel the same concerns you have regarding contamination.” She faced them and put a bit of arrogance in her words. “How do we know if we can trust your biology? How safe from pathogens is this station for us?”

  The Alysians shuffled their feet but had no ready reply… even Richard, who so far, had not been at a loss for words or arguments.

  Thankfully, Merek had made her orders clear. She scanned her team who stood quiet. Captain James Bradley rubbed his helmet and frowned. Tate gazed around, dismay plainly visible through his helmeted faceplate as he analyzed the condition of the station. Her junior biologist, Jay Luttrell, wandered a few steps away to inspect an area of interest, while her bodyguard, M
erek, stuck close and thankfully kept his mouth shut. Elected to represent the other ships, their administrator, Robert Grant, took notes with a look on his face as if he’d bitten into a sour persimmon. Not a one was happy with the situation… but there it was.

  This wasn’t the end result the fleet had hoped for when embarking on their several hundred-years’ quest. They had battled challenges across the galaxy only to arrive exhausted and depleted here at a planet full of unwelcoming aliens. At least the fields were already plowed and planted down below, although the weather looked iffy.

  “Temporary quarters? Until you’re satisfied we’re not contagious?” She didn’t like the sound of that. Her team had gone through decontamination on their other space station but, with that one already fully occupied, this was what was available. Take it or leave was the ultimatum.

  James tapped her suit. “Best assign a time limit on it. Set a date.” He glanced away. “One fairly short.” He brushed distastefully at the bulky outfit and looked across the open area with misgivings.

  “I’ll get disinfectors in right away,” Robert promised.

  She sighed, accepting the inevitable. “All right. We need to make arrangements on how this operation will proceed.” She could see the Alysians relax their shoulders, and a few smiles beamed through the faceplates.