VulcansWoman Page 18

  “If it’s a shifter, sir, it’ll die.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “You need to speak to the commander for specifics.”

  A swooshing sound blasted through Wisteria’s ears. The monster wailed. Its big, circular eyes glared in their direction as the ineffective stick lay in the dirt near its feet.

  Wisteria glanced at Vulcan. He was glaring at Tyran, who’d aimed another stick at the monster. Zypher ran off in the direction of the huts.

  Wisteria stood, fisting a handful of Vulcan’s hair. “It sees us.”

  She jumped backward from its line of vision and landed inside a bunch of prickly pine branches.

  Just as Vulcan reached forward to yank the weapon from Tyran’s hands, Tyran pulled the stick back then released it. It sprang free, whizzing through the air. It bounced off the monster’s neck, barely nicking its skin.

  “Rrrrraaaaggghhh,” it roared as if in pain.

  Wisteria gasped and clamped a hand over her mouth.

  Vulcan grabbed her arm and pulled her from the tree.

  The monster shook its head side to side, roaring and smacking its mouth open and closed. Its claws dug into the ground, kicking up clouds of dust. Suddenly it stopped moving and studied the trees off to its side. In one leap it reached the forest and stuck its head inside.

  Branches snapped. A man screamed at the top of his lungs. Then the monster resurfaced, holding a tribesman in its large mouth. His legs dangled over one side of the creature’s teeth while his upper half hung over the other. The man hollered and screamed, punching the monster’s snout. Then it clamped its jaws together, crushing the man’s body. His bones crunched and skin split open. A spray of blood burst into the air and trickled to the ground.

  Wisteria whimpered and squeezed her eyes shut then turned away, fighting the urge to vomit.

  “Damn you, Tyran,” Vulcan seethed. “Get to the weapons and ammo. Fast.”

  Wisteria’s chest exploded in fear as Tyran darted past them.

  “Bring me the Barrett,” Vulcan shouted.

  Vulcan positioned Wisteria behind a huge tree and stuck her between his body and the trunk. Her head spun. And her heartbeat thundered. And her body trembled. And she wanted to scream.

  “Chieftain,” Tyran hollered moments later. He tossed Vulcan a long object then ran into the camp, yelling, “Get down! Get down.”

  Vulcan stepped to the camp border, holding the object against his shoulder. Suddenly a loud bang echoed through her ears. She covered them with her hands and dropped to a squat, peering through thick brush and tree limbs.

  “Rrrrraaaaggghhh!”

  The monster wailed. Another bang followed. Then another. And another.

  It stumbled forward, its head nearly blown off and its chest covered in blood. It teetered and then hit the ground with a thunderous boom. The tremors reached Wisteria, vibrating along the bottoms of her feet.

  Voices and gasps filled the air as the tribe ambled from their hiding spots, eying the monster cautiously. Vulcan led Wisteria from the forest into the clearing, halting when their feet landed on the dirt ground. “Zypher, Trice,” he shouted, “secure the women and children in the shelters then set torches around the camp perimeter. Repeat the process on this side. Tyran?”

  “Right here, sir.”

  Vulcan spun around, took two required steps, grabbed the front of Tyran’s furs and shook him. “What the hell were you thinking? Didn’t I tell you, you’d piss it off?”

  “Sorry, sir. I told you one possibility of what could have happened.”

  “Yeah, that an arrow would kill a shifter. However, you neglected to explain why and what it has in common with an eighteen-foot T-Rex.” Vulcan released Tyran and stepped back. He appeared mad enough to kill him. “Go help Zypher and Trice.”

  “If I can get samples of the Rex, Chieftain, I may not need to confiscate any eggs,” Tyran said with urgency. “And you really should contact the commander immediately.”

  “Make sure it’s dead. Take what you need then chop it up and burn it.”

  Wisteria wrapped her hands around Vulcan’s arm and squeezed. “Ivy?” she hollered, glancing at people scurrying about, grabbing supplies. “Ivy, where are you?”

  “I’m here, Wisty,” she replied, crawling from the back side of an oak tree behind Vulcan’s hut. She scrambled to her feet and dashed across the camp, throwing herself into Wisteria’s arms. “I was so scared.”

  “I know.” Wisteria petted Ivy’s hair. She couldn’t tell who trembled more. “We all were.”

  “What was that thing?”

  “A Tyrannosaurus,” Bronto replied, stepping from behind the same tree.

  “What is a Tyra…tannasaurus?” Wisteria asked, glancing over her shoulder at Vulcan.

  “Bronto, take Ivy to the shelter. Wisteria,” Vulcan said, holding out his hand, “come with me.”

  Vulcan took a torch from a tribesman as they passed him while en route to the weapons shelter. His guts were in his throat. That animal could have caused major damage. Good thing the government had chosen the Barrett as part of the artillery for this mission. In conjunction with the dinosaurs, it was now obvious why they’d sent such a powerful rifle.

  After Vulcan helped Wisteria down the steps he darted straight to the computer and turned it on, tapping his thumb on the table while waiting for it to boot.

  It took forever. Longer than normal, but that’s how things unfolded when in an urgent situation. Being housed fifteen feet underground interfered with reception and not even the high-tech equipment worked fluently at one hundred percent all the time.

  It finally sputtered to life and the screen lit up bright-blue. Wisteria stared between the computer and the shelves while he activated the direct-communicator and waited for Sumner to appear.

  At least ten more minutes ticked by before the commander responded. “Sumner here.”

  Wisteria jumped up and backed into the wall, staring through huge eyes at the gray-haired commander as if he were another monster.

  “It’s okay,” Vulcan assured her. “This is the man I told you about. Come sit down.”

  “Who do we have here?” Sumner asked as his eyes followed Wisteria back to her seat.

  “This is Wisteria.”

  She moved closer to the computer screen, observing it carefully. “How did he get in there?”

  Vulcan grinned. “He’s not in there. He’s communicating with me from Earth. It’s part of our modern technology.”

  “Wisteria,” Sumner said, “maybe you can come and see our technology for yourself. Would you like that?”

  Vulcan’s gaze shot to the computer screen. “No. I’m not bringing her back so a bunch of twisted scientists can poke and prod her for research purposes.”

  “I didn’t mean”

  “She’s not a spectacle.” Those info-thirsty hounds would dissect a doe to theorize why she had no cock. He laid his hand on Wisteria’s knee and felt it tremble. “Commander, talk to me about Helixis. And I want the truth. It’s time you come clean about this mission. We’re encountering some strange creatures. Mutants. A chameleon species. A two-headed serpent. Dinosaurs. Did I mention the eighteen-foot T-Rex stomping through our camp?”

  The commander cleared his throat. “You’re right. I apologize.”

  Wisteria poked the screen directly over Sumner’s nose.

  Vulcan grinned while cupping her shoulders and leaning her back in the chair.

  Again Sumner cleared his throat. “I can only attest to the dinosaurs and possibly the mutants. The rest are planetary fixtures.”

  “I’m listening,” Vulcan goaded.

  “An alien species is stealing the eggs and placing them close to areas occupied by humans.”

  “The chameleon species?”

  “Unfortunately not. Like I previously told you, the horde you’d encountered completely blindsided us. We knew nothing of their existence. The ones I’m referring to have invaded Earth and other p
lanets on numerous occasions.”

  “And now they’re invading Helixis,” Vulcan said dismally with a sigh. “This is why our departure home has been postponed,” he stated rather than asked.

  Sumner nodded. “In a sense they’re temporarily using Helixis, and they are causing a huge threat.”

  “So what’s the plan? Give me some instructions.”

  “Destroy the eggs,” the commander stated without hesitation.

  “Why? If the aliens are the problem, why not destroy them?”

  “That would be the ideal solution. Unfortunately it’s not possible. Our only option at this point is to remove the source to prevent DNA extraction.”

  “They’re extracting DNA from the eggs?”

  “Yes, to combine with human DNA.”

  “How is that”

  “Listen,” the commander said, lifting his hands, palms facing outward. “I know this sounds ridiculous, but it’s extremely important. They are creating shifters as their weapons of mass destruction.”

  “Shifters?”

  “Dinosaur shifters. They’ll arrive at their destination looking as human as you or I.”

  “Well, the T-Rex is lying dead in our camp. It looked pretty normal.” Ah, now he understood Tyran’s attempt to take it down with an arrow. He still couldn’t believe it. A T-Rex. A damn T-Rex. How fucking unbelievable. Thank God for the Barrett. Without it they could have lost a lot, if not all of, the people.

  “Gather blood samples, skin samples, bone fragments. We may be able to produce an antidote to counteract”

  “Tyran is already on it. Will you please explain why our government is dabbling where it doesn’t belong?”

  “Vulcan,” Sumner said sternly. “It is our business. We’re doing it for the safety of our people.”

  “It appears the lives in jeopardy are the people on Helixis, not Earth.”

  “In a manner of speaking, both planets are in danger. Helixis is an all-inclusive, open laboratory. The species are no longer performing live experiments on themselves because they’re losing too many to failure, so they are utilizing the people on Helixis. Whether the species fails or prevails, Helixis’ population will be wiped out. The species will then move on to the next planet and so on until the entire solar system is under their command and prepared to devastate Earth.”

  “Dinosaur shifters.” Vulcan rolled his eyes. “Where is this coming from?”

  “Evidence.”

  “Well, they’ve failed.”

  “You’re wrong. They’ve only just begun. They’ll master the experiment. It’s just a matter of time. Then,” he glanced at Wisteria, “excuse my language,” he shifted his attention back to Vulcan, “we’re fucked.”

  “If that happens, no way will they survive our military.”

  “You’re missing the point. I said shifters.”

  “So, we blast them to pieces.”

  “Focus on the word shifter, Vulcan. They’ll arrive as normal humans, and then they’ll shift into dinosaurs of all shapes and sizes. If they arrive in droves of hundreds at a time, imagine the magnitude of destruction those monsters can cause in a very short time. Our military cannot just blast them without causing further devastation.”

  Vulcan rubbed his eyes with his thumb and index finger. “Should I check the T-Rex to see if it reverted back to human form?”

  Sumner stiffened in his chair and his expression turned anxious. “How long ago did you kill it?”

  “Fifteen, maybe twenty minutes.”

  “No. We believe they revert immediately upon death.”

  In other words it was a pissed-off stray searching for its eggs. “Believe?”

  “Since they’re still in the experimental stages, we’re relying on our analysis of other shifter types.”

  Vulcan glanced at Wisteria then focused on the commander. “Are you sure this isn’t the prior species we’ve encountered? They fit the experiment. How else can you explain their characteristics? Maybe we hadn’t destroyed them all as we thought, or perhaps they were the failures.”

  “All I can say is, without human DNA, the species have nothing to experiment with, so be careful,” Sumner said.

  “Why haven’t we seen these aliens?”

  “Like I mentioned, it isn’t possible.” He placed a fist over his mouth and cleared his throat. “They look more human than alien except for their green coloring and black, straggly hair. Their limbs are like rubber and can stretch ten to fifteen feet.”

  “If it’s impossible to see them, where’s this description coming from?”

  “They haven’t always avoided the dangers of being seen. I guess you can lay the blame for that on the government’s shoulders.”

  “In other words, the species have discovered ways to conceal themselves while planning revenge on Earth?”

  “Something like that.”

  Are you kidding me? Vulcan shook his head in disbelief. “What exactly did we do to piss them off?”

  Sumner shifted nervously in his seat. “It’s not so much what we’ve done, but how we’ve done it.”

  “Great.” Not only had they fallen prey to a bunch of aliens but to a bunch of pissed-off aliens.

  “We captured as many as we could for our own experimental purposes. When they sent in ships to rescue the infants, we blew them out of the sky.”

  Vulcan’s shoulders snapped to attention. “Infants! You captured infants!”

  “No. No,” Sumner replied in urgency, holding up his hands. “It’s nothing like that. They’re hybrids. Little humanoid aliens. I’ll admit, I was mortified myself and could not believe the level we’ve dropped to. I refused to participate in their antics but, Vulcan, you won’t believe the outcome.”

  “Dear God,” Vulcan mumbled. “Why would we perform such sick experiments?”

  “Revolutionary discovery. The babies look like normal humans, but if they’re inbred with the scientific skills and capabilities of the aliens, imagine the power we’ll inherit for our future.”

  “In other words, the species want to reclaim what they feel is rightfully theirs.”

  Sumner placed his index fingers together and tapped them against his lips, seemingly ignoring Vulcan’s comment. “I wonder,” Sumner said, “if the aliens currently invading Helixis are, in fact, the chameleon species. If so, they’ve tampered with multiple genetics and it would explain their characteristics. It could also explain why they’re seeking humans and are no longer performing the experiments on themselves. The chameleons might very well have been another type of failure.”

  Isn’t that what I’d already said? “Quick learner,” Vulcan mumbled sarcastically under his breath. “It’s a logical assumption, however, I’d rather deal with the shifters.”

  “This isn’t good,” the commander continued, his expression turning grim. “If it is the same species, they’ve already shifted at least once into chameleons. In that case, Vulcan, the people on Helixis are in a whole lot of shit.”

  “I hope you’re wrong.”

  “Yeah, so do I, but let’s think about this for a moment.” Sumner leaned back in his chair and crossed his ankles on the desk. “They’re trying to create dinosaur shifters, right?”

  “That’s what you keep telling me.”

  “Well,” the commander said, again tapping his lips, “I wonder if they’re transforming into multiple animals or whatnot. This could be their approach to capturing their victims. If this is what’s happening, they’ve already perfected the ability to shift, which means they’ve figured out a major component. It’s only a matter of time before they master the DNA splicing. We need to stop them now.”

  Vulcan rubbed the back of his neck, studied Wisteria for a moment then returned his attention to the commander. “Theoretically, if we can somehow identify the species and obliterate them, we won’t need to destroy the eggs.”

  Wisteria laid her fingers on Vulcan’s arm. “What does that mean?” she asked, studying his eyes.

  He smiled and patte
d her hand. “To get rid of them for good.”

  “Your theory is correct,” Sumner replied. “But unlikely as I previously explained.”

  Vulcan glared at the commander. If the species were one and the same, he and his unit would find them. Eventually. Hopefully. “Can the mutants be actual clones?”

  “No, not according to Tyran. The DNA would need to be identical. In this case, it’s not.”

  Vulcan gazed at Wisteria and patted her hand once more. “Two of her missing clan members reappeared today, both in a mutant state.”

  Sumner’s brows furrowed. “I’m sorry to hear that, Wisteria,” he said, sounding genuinely concerned. “What became of them, Vulcan?”

  “Destroyed,” he replied, gazing into Wisteria’s eyes.

  She squeezed his arm. “Does that mean Boar is dead?”

  Vulcan looked at the commander for an explanation.

  “I’m afraid he is,” Sumner offered.

  She bit on her bottom lip and batted her lashes at ensuing tears.

  It was not what Vulcan wanted to hear. He’d hoped he’d killed a mutant replica, not her actual brother. What if the mutation was a temporary state? What if it could’ve been reversed by an antidote as Wisteria mentioned days ago? Damn it. He didn’t want to feel responsible for Boar’s demise if he was repairable. “Sumner, you’re sure about this? There’s no way these mutants can return to normal?”

  “None,” Sumner stated quite confidently. “The species completely drain the victim’s blood to mix with the mammal’s. They are completely lifeless,” he added, glancing at Wisteria uncomfortably as if regretting what he was about to say, “before it’s transfused back into their bodies.”

  Jesus! What a gruesome brood. Chalk one up to the aliens, who’d outdone the government on brutality.

  Vulcan stood and pulled Wisteria into his arms. He rested his chin on the top of her head and lowered his gaze to the computer. “What do you suggest we do, Commander?”

  “If you destroy all dinosaur eggs, you’ll defuse the situation. The mission on Helixis will reach a conclusion.”

  “We’ll do what we can.”

  “Vulcan, it has been a long two years, but soon you’ll finally be heading home.”