Space Colony One: Night of Flames
Welcome back for another Saturday Snippet!
As often happens, I was too optimistic about what I would achieve writing-wise this week, and I can’t bring you a snippet of my new space colonisation series…except that I can! I didn’t manage to begin book one in the series, but I can post the beginning of the prequel, Space Colony One: Night of Flames.
Night of Flames appears in The Expanding Universe 2, which is an anthology of twenty-three fantastic scifi stories. The anthology is only available for a limited time so download a copy now if you don’t want to miss out.
A new world colony. A moonless night. An alien attack.
Ethan wakes to find his dream of life on humanity’s first deep space colony has turned into a nightmare.
Chapter One
He was barefoot, and the strange, mossy turf of the new world was rubbery and cool against his skin.
After the night lamps of the barn, the outside world was pitch black to his eyes save for the string of lights that led to the latrine. He strained to listen. He was sure he’d heard the thunk of something large hitting the ground out there, but now he couldn’t hear anything other than the wind rustling the fronds of vegetation that surrounded the camp.
Back in the newly built barn, the rest of the colonists were sleeping soundly. More than two hundred men and women lay on rows of low cots, exhausted after a long day spent bringing down essential supplies from the ship. It wasn’t surprising that no one else had heard the noise.
The sound was probably nothing, he told himself. Maybe just a dying plant toppled by the wind. None of the probes the scientists had sent from Earth and from the ship over the years had found signs of complex animal life, nor of plants capable of locomotion.
Holding up a lamp and peering ahead, he went on. The lamp’s glow wasn’t strong, and the moonless planet with its faint, unfamiliar constellations was a dark place at night, but he had an idea of the direction the sound had come from. His eyes adjusted to the darkness as he went. Dim gray shapes came into view—the boxes of supplies piled in heaps around the compound.
Another thunk. He stopped. This noise had come from farther away than the first, in the direction of the comm module they’d set up to talk to the ship. He ran a hand through his hair and glanced back at the barn, tall and wide behind him, blacker than sky. Should he tell someone? Dr. Crowley, perhaps? One of the Woken, the doctor always seemed to know what to do.
No. The old woman needed her rest, and he was just a Gen farmer. What did he know? Besides, what else would you expect on an alien planet but weird noises? He would walk the perimeter fence and satisfy himself there was no cause for alarm, then return to the barn and his well-earned slumber.
A third thunk. Off to his right. What the…? He swung around and gazed into the night. Beyond the dim circle of his lamp’s light was nothing but darkness. He hesitated on the verge of returning and waking someone in authority, but he was sure he was nearly at the fence. It would only take him a moment to have a quick look around. He decided to go on.
A shriek splintered the calm of the night. The cry had come from the barn. Lauren. An almost inhuman howl of agony shot through with terror followed the shriek. He sprinted back the way he’d come, his bare feet struggling to grip the damp ground cover. He slipped and fell. The lamp sprang from his hand and skittered away.
He leapt up. The lamp could wait. The shriek had been joined by shouts and screams. The barn doors flew open and people poured out. Lauren. Where was she? The people raced off, spreading in disorder throughout the camp, pushing each other down in their hurry to get away. The fallen couldn’t stand and others tumbled over them, crushing them in the stampede.
He was at the barn. He forced his way against the tide of escaping colonists. A woman came rushing toward him, her eyes popping and her mouth wide. She held up bloody, raw hands, palms out.
“Don’t touch it,” she wailed. “It burns.” Then she was gone.
Behind the remnants of the people rushing from the barn lay the object of their fear: A grayish-brown mass covered most of one of the cots, leaving only the cot legs visible beneath the misshapen lump.
A man ran past, colliding with Ethan’s shoulder.
“We can’t get it off of her,” he said, his deep voice choked with barely suppressed sobs. “We’ve tried everything. I’m going to call the ship.”
The barn was nearly empty now. Only the brown thing remained and a young woman standing over it, hitting it with the broken leg of a cot, her face wracked with anguish and despair.
“Lauren,” he shouted.
“Ethan,” she exclaimed. She threw down the cot leg, ran to him and grabbed his arms. “Where have you been? The others all panicked and ran away. Can you help? Only don’t touch it, it—”
“It burns. I know. Someone told me.”
Ethan stepped closer to the thing for a better look. As he saw what lay beneath it, the strength went from his legs and he nearly collapsed. Poking out from the upper end of the creature were the head and shoulders of Dr. Crowley. The alien life form was on top of her.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s snippet. Go here to read previous snippets from my latest series, Star Mage Exile.