The Watcher [Alien Nation #1]

Epilogue

It was on a quiet island with no other land in sight that Rinir'Enrit had her first breath of real air and felt the heat of a real star on her skin.

She was the first to step down from the craft that touched down on the strip of yellow next to the expanse of water. She'd never seen so much water in one place, though in the briefing before she left the ship they'd warned her not to drink it. It didn't smell much like water, anyway.

The ground slid around under her feet, and she didn't like that at all. She watched as the others filed out of the shuttle, one by one in a neat line, exactly how they lived all their lives, the only way they had ever known. Even among their people, none were more disciplined than her soldiers.

"5298, 6791, 6787," she called out. The soldiers in question snapped to attention. "Scout the other side of the island," she said, pointing her rifle over the hill. "5304 and I will investigate the cave."

"Yes, hrikit-riktat!" they shouted in perfect unison, their voices harmonising just enough to be grating.

"Go, then," she said, and they turned on their heels and marched off, visibly struggling on the strange terrain.

She waited until their voices had faded from hearing, before she turned to the sole remaining soldier-5304 was the name branded on the plate on his left breast, but Aktir'sarit was the name he had chosen for himself, according to traditions most had forgotten, or had had beaten out of them. "They won't be distracted for long," she told him. "Let's go."

"Bodies," Sarit observed as they hurried towards the cave. "3279 and 7001."

"I won't miss 3279," Rinir said, "nasty bastard. 7001 was young, though."

"Do you think he would have joined us?" asked Sarit. "He always seemed different."

"Doesn't matter. He's dead now."

"But-what is that?" Sarit had stopped in his tracks and was staring at a lump surrounded by a dark red stain.

"A local," she said, trailing behind Sarit as he got a closer look. "A dead one."

Sarit poked the dead local with the butt of his rifle. "They're so...soft. Look, it's throat's all cut up." He turned to Rinir, forehead plates contracting sceptically. "Now that's just bad design."

"We're not here to critique other species' evolutionary faults," Rinir said, patience fading. "We don't have much time before the others come back." She turned on her heel and headed for the cave, Sarit following, as she knew he would.

The inside of the cave was more welcoming than that expanse outside; cramped and dark, as they were used to. She didn't like the damp, though, and the ground was wet and uneven. It wasn't long before they rounded a corner and came upon a hulk of dirty metal.

"That's the wreck?" said Sarit.

"It is. Whatever's inside, one of the locals died to protect it."

"The Priest didn't show me those reports," Sarit grumbled.

Rinir craned her neck to look over the hull. There had to be an entrance somewhere. "Scouts saw a ship land on the planet and take a local from a population centre. Too advanced to be native, not one of ours. 3279 and his team followed it, saw that its crew had taken something from this wreck and decided it was important, held the local hostage and killed it by accident, by the look of it. Whatever the...well, they're not locals. Whatever the others took from the wreck, 3279 didn't get it. And there were other species with the one who looked like a local. One similar, but only partially organic and with brighter plumage. The other was..." She waved her hand to show what words could not. There were no other creatures on the warships, nothing but Tatiyrenka, so she had nothing to compare it to. "...Something else," she finished. "Boost me up, I think I found a door."

Sarit was taller than her, but even so, it was clear that the others had the advantage of size over the Tatiyrenka, even if they lacked their natural armour. It took two tries for Rinir to climb up to the side of the keening ship and pull Sarit up behind her.

She turned her torch on once they had dropped down into the interior of the ship. The light danced along dull metal surfaces coated with a thick layer of dust.

"Look," said Sarit, shining his light along a passage that led away into the darkness. "Someone's disturbed the dust here."

"That's the way we go, then," said Rinir, leading the way.

They rounded a corner and Sarit stopped in his tracks. "There's lights on in that room," he said, pointing to the room at the end of the corridor, from which a pale blue light flickered.

"Maybe the others forgot to turn it off when 3729 started shooting at them," Rinir responded. She checked the scanner on her wrist, and found exactly what she expected. "There's no life signatures or heat traces here, Sarit. We're fine." She squeezed past the half-closed door into the chamber.

As soon as her feet had crossed the threshold, a voice rang out through the darkness.

They both froze, and the voice fell silent after a few short outbursts. Sarit edged into the room behind her, sweeping the chamber with his finger on his trigger. Rinir raised a hand, wordlessly ordering him to stand down.

"That wasn't a person," said Rinir. Her heart was thundering. The wires threaded through and under her carapace glowed faintly with the adrenaline-each intricate pattern was a kill, a victory, a triumph stitched into herself, and now it bathed her in a faint cyan glow. "Not a real one."

The Tatiyrenka had computers too. Some of them even had voices, like this one.

"Send for...who is the best acolyte? Loyal to me, of course."

Sarit thought for a moment. "Rikar'Karit. She knows how to work the..." he gestured vaguely at the banks of computers. They were so different to the instruments lining the temple back on the fleet, so many screens and so few buttons. "Machines. But she keeps her head down. I don't think the High Priest knows she exists. Then there's Yalar'Tasyenet. He'd be the one to actually get into this thing."

"Perfect," said Rinir. "Then Rikar will monitor this machine, and Tasyenet will lead the team investigating it. We don't know what this...thing will tell us. We can't have the wrong information getting into the wrong hands."

Sarit eyed her in that way he had, the way that said he knew she was scheming, and he would be dragged along for the ride whether he liked it or not. But he would probably like it. "And what would be the right information, Rinir?"

"Their language. Where this thing came from...it is not of this planet. Whoever built it, we're going to need their help in our coming struggle, and they ours."

Rinir powered down her weapon and slung it over her shoulder. The machine started chattering again, but she ignored it. She'd leave it to Rikar'Karit to solve that mystery-her squadron would by now have realised that the island held nothing of interest. They would return to the shuttle, waiting for orders, their lives purposeless without them. And she would give them, and then they would return to the fleet and she would play the harsh, unforgiving hrikit-riktat, the commander, the undefeated and unfeeling warrior who bowed and scraped at the feet of the High Priest and the powers her mind was too tiny to comprehend. She would eat and sleep and train, and pretend that understanding anything above that was far beyond her capabilities.

For now.

THE END

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A/N: Thank you so much for reading this far! Please don't forget to vote if you've enjoyed the story.

The sequel, Second Contact, is now published! Jules and the Commonwealth will help Earth fight the invaders and we'll meet more Commonwealth bureaucrats, Terran resistance fighters, and find out more about Rinir and her people!

I've also included a short story I've written about a ghraal ice hauler and the surprising lengths she's willing to go to make her new human crewmate feel at home, set shortly before the events of The Watcher. Enjoy!