Humans Are Encountered

Prologue

 Jessica hummed lowly to herself as she stirred the container she was heating in front of her. Scrolling along on her tablet as she continuously stirred, she marked a few notes for her experiment. Her eyes flicked around the room for a brief second, cataloging the other people near her before returning to her work. She had another half hour until she could remove the liquid, so she opened up a document she had been meaning to dig back through for direct notes.

Lost in the paper, Jessica was not much aware of anything else, which is what made the explosion to her left so jarring. She jerked back, nearly tipping over her beaker as the whole building shook. She whipped around to look at the other scientists, who appeared to be just as baffled. She flicked the heating plate off, resolved to redoing this part of the experiment.

"What do you think that was?" She asked, approaching the huddled group.

"I don't know. It came from our wing, though." Adam was rubbing the back of his neck in thought.

Wren froze. "Kohev is all alone in there." She turned, darting towards the door.

Jessica snatched her wrist to stop her. "Leave the animal. We don't know what the hell that was. You could be running into anything."

"But I need to help him."

"Wren, no."

"Jess, you don't understand."

"Let's just wait until someone gets here and tells us what's going on. Then, you can go get him or send someone for him," Adam cut in.

Both the girls were silenced, nodding in agreement. It didn't take long for Faradae to come skidding into the room with answers, though.

"Come on!" He yelled breathlessly. "Weapons room. Now."

"What's going on?" Adam stood planted.

"There's an attack on the base. That's all I know. We have to get down to the safety room."

"But Kohev-"

"Wren," Jessica groaned.

"Can you please have someone retrieve Kohev from Wren's room?" Adam asked Faradae, who nodded before sprinting off down the hallway.

The rest of the group was not too far behind, rushing down the corridors and down stairwells until reaching the weapons room. Soldiers were waiting outside, quickly ushering the humans into the adjoining antechamber and locking the door without any explanation.

Adam paced back and forth along the wall, unhappy with being locked in this room for so long with no information. Well, he kept muttering they had been in here so long, but really, Jessica did not believe it to be more than fifteen minutes.

Suddenly, there was a mechanical sound as the doors to the weapon room slid open and shut. Everyone tensed, realizing there were no weapons in the antechamber itself to protect themselves. They were all fish in a barrel waiting as the doors to the antechamber slid open, taking away their only defense. Wren and Jessica gripped onto each other, waiting to see who or what was waiting for them on the other side.