Checking the counter again, Nicholas whirled around, the sounds of squids behind him suddenly louder. Using the last of his charge to illuminate the tunnel behind him, his heart leaped to his throat, his mouth suddenly dry.

  Hundreds of the small squids were surging along the tunnel, hot on their tails. Behind them, an unknown number of larger squids followed, filling out most of the tunnel’s size with their large round masses.

  “Dag, pick it up!” he snapped, dropping the empty rifle and running as fast as he could in his crouched position. He nearly slipped, wrinkling his nose as he splashed through the mangled squid guts.

  Dag raced along the passages ahead of him, turning left at the next intersection. The tunnel started ascending as they ran, slowing Nicholas down. His legs already felt like rubber, but he couldn’t afford to give up. Pushing harder, he climbed the slope, following Dag until he realized the alien clacking and slapping had faded away.

  “Hold up,” he gasped, bracing his hands on his knees and panting to catch his breath. Apparently, the squids had given up the chase. A sense of relief washed over him until he realized the squids had to have taken off for a damn good reason. Could there be something else loose in the tunnels? Something that even they feared.

  A sense of trepidation filled Nicholas as Dag led him into one final, long tunnel. He immediately spotted dim light at the far end. Approaching the light, Nicholas heard the familiar refrain.

  “Cooperation. Facilitation. I require assistance. Hahahaha. Hahaha. Haha.”

  Only now it wasn’t coming from a broadcast reaching out to the stars.

  It was close.

  Very close.

  Chapter 21

  Nicholas sank the spear into the rock, lifting himself high enough to reach the edge of the tunnel entrance with his other hand. Gritting his teeth, he pulled himself up on wrists still sore from being cuffed to the pipe and climbed out of the hole. He sat on the bottom of the hole in the wall and reached back in for his weapon.

  With Dag having already confirmed they were safe here for the time being, he paused to take in his immediate surroundings. The tunnel had led them to a dingy room small enough for Dag’s headlamp to illuminate it.

  Once painted white, the smooth walls and ceiling were stained with dark splatters that also appeared on the amoeba-like fixtures that hung down from it. Blood stains. They were thicker and deeper on the floor, moving from one part of the room to the hole in the center. A circular aperture-style door offered a potential exit, though it had been barricaded by the furniture and equipment that had once filled the room. Some of the rearmost debris looked like it had been tossed aside, the heaviest bloodstains near those pieces.

  It was like something out of a horror movie. He didn’t know if the humanoid posing as him was one of the former residents of the city, but he found it hard to picture beings like it as frightened innocents doing their best to stay quiet and hidden in here as the enemy prowled the halls outside the door. It was even harder to envision them screaming in fear as the squids, or maybe the armored trife flooded into the room through the exit hole from the tunnel. Would beings that strong and capable try to throw their assembled barricade aside to flee the room instead of trying to control their attackers with nothing more than a touch? It wasn’t likely, but then again, he supposed it was possible.

  “Cooperation. Facilitation. I require assistance. Hahahaha. Hahaha. Haha.”

  Nicholas looked up at a small series of perforations in the ceiling. A speaker? Maybe he wasn’t as close to the source as he thought. But Dag had led him here, so he remained certain he was closing in on the source of the broadcast.

  Nicholas pocketed the spear and jumped off the periphery of the hole. “Help me clear the door,” he said, approaching the barricade.

  Looking at the debris, it became immediately clear that the technology here was at least slightly more advanced than Earth’s, almost to the detriment of the civilization who had created it. The material the tables, desks, and chairs were made from was feather-light, thin but durable, the furniture crafted as much for aesthetic quality as comfort. It didn’t make for great barricade material.

  The desks were curious in that they all had a curved extension that rose from the rear, blocking the possibility of mounting a display there. For that matter, he didn’t find any terminals, displays, or keyboards among the debris, which left him wondering what the desks were even for. He did find a device shaped to fit a head approximately the size of a human’s, with flat, inset pads along one side. He pressed the top pad and a projection emerged from the other side, pointing forward to cast a holographic menu against the bloodstained wall.

  It was interesting technology, but Nicholas doubted its usefulness. He tossed the device aside and continued moving the furniture until he had a clear path to the door. It rotated open when he neared, revealing a wide corridor on the other side.

  Clearly able to tell there was nothing waiting for them beyond the room, Dag passed between his legs and out into the hallway. Nicholas pulled the spear back out just in case and followed more cautiously, looking in both directions before stepping through the doorway.

  More bare, stark white walls lined the corridor, broken up by aperture doorways with labels printed beside them in the same alien symbols as on the transporter. Unlike the mess in the room, there was little sign of violence in the hallway, save for a few broken light fixtures and claw marks that scuffed the floor.

  The functional fixtures activated as he stepped out of the room, proving the facility still had power. Dag immediately turned off his headlamp.

  “Cooperation. Facilitation. I require assistance. Hahahaha. Hahaha. Haha.”

  The voice echoed in the passageway, coming from multiple speakers hidden within the walls.

  “It’s in here somewhere, isn’t it?” Nicholas asked. “Do you know where, Dag?”

  Dag didn’t budge, indicating he didn’t know the exact location of the source. They would have to search for it.

  “Do you know if Yasmin and the others are in here too?” Nicholas asked. “You’re connected to the comms. You should be able to patch in if they’re close.”

  Dag still didn’t move. Nicholas took it as another no, though he didn’t know if the second no meant his crew wasn’t here or that the bot couldn’t hear them. Or maybe he had disconnected from their comms to keep the imposter from locating them.

  The humanoid posing as Nicholas had known exactly how to remove Dag’s battery. Did Dag know as much about the imposter as the imposter did about him?

  “I’ll take the lead,” Nicholas said. “Let me know if I’m going in the wrong direction.”

  He stepped over Dag, heading down the corridor to a doorway at the end. The aperture spun open as he neared it, revealing a hallway similar to the first, with an intersection in the middle. Nicholas stopped there, looking down each connecting passageway. They traveled about one hundred feet in each direction before reaching another door. He noticed that two of the doors had red LEDs beside them, indicating to him that they were locked. Of course, it was possible red meant something else here. But the entire environment felt so familiar despite its definitively alien nature.

  He turned left, walking to the door. As expected, it didn’t open automatically when he reached it. “Dag, do you know how to open these?”

  Dag pointed to the light before turning his hand into a fist, leaving his thumb extended. It was the first time the bot had given him a straight answer about anything.

  Nicholas touched his thumb to the light. When he pulled it back, his entire fingerprint appeared on it traced in light—red at first, then green. The door spun open.

  “You’re telling me I have permission to open the doors?” Nicholas said, surprised. He realized he probably shouldn’t be surprised. There were at least three Foresights here. Three versions of himself. Whatever this place was, someone definitely wanted him here.

  Another someone had left a lot of monsters behind to kill him before he could make it this far. And a third someone...or something...wanted to take his place.

  He still couldn’t fathom exactly what Grimmel had gotten him involved in, but he had to believe he was getting closer to finding out.

  They passed through the door into another corridor. This one only had a single door on either side, each one flanked by a pair of long windows. Looking through one window on the left, Nicholas spotted a handful of machines of different shapes and sizes, designed to serve a purpose he couldn’t begin to understand. All of them were made of a nearly white, metallic material with sleek lines and flashing lights. And beneath them, the floor was a reflective metallic, giving it the appearance of water from the angle of his view.

  Nothing important. At least from his perspective.

  He went back the other way and looked into the room on the right. It was a laboratory of some kind. The equipment in it reminded him of microscopes and centrifuges, with a large sterile white device in the corner that had the definite look of a three dimensional printer. If Yasmin were here, she probably could have identified everything in both rooms, or at least made a decent guess.

  Considering the scene near the tunnel entrance, the fact that this area remained undamaged surprised him more than his permissioned access to enter it had. Why hadn’t the squids tunneled into this part of the facility? A quick examination of the floor proved the armored trife hadn’t passed through this section either. Surely they were strong enough to break through this door, especially having been given years in which to do it. Then again, there obviously hadn’t been anyone in here for them to attack—no blood stains—so there hadn’t been any reason for them to force their way in.

  Another door occupied the far end of the hallway. It opened at Nicholas’ approach, revealing a large room that had to be a research facility. Glass-walled partitions split the room into four cubicles. All four were lined with shelves, which were fully stocked. One room contained thousands of vials. Another, hundreds of larger containers. The third held a supply of what appeared to be alien body parts, including the end of a squid tentacle.

  Nicholas found the fourth cubicle the most intriguing. It held the fewest overall items, limited to a dozen floor-to-ceiling tubes nearly two feet in diameter. The top and bottom of the tubes were made of the same material as the devices in the prior room. The center was transparent.

  Each tube was filled with a translucent whitish gel. Speckles floated constantly upward in it, showing the system was continuously pumping new material into the tubes and filtering out the old.

  An assortment of creatures hung suspended within the gel in each tube. Right away, Nicholas recognized an even smaller version of the squids, inert in the tube closest to the front. Another creature resembled the thing that had taken control of Harry, though it was much smaller and the shape of it seemed more primitive, like the difference between a classic Model T Ford and the more modern Tesla Model Y. A third creature was a simple lump of black goo that reminded Nicholas of a lava lamp with regard to how it shifted in response to the movement of the gel it floated in.

  The other tubes contained similar nightmarish creatures, save for the last one, tucked into the back corner. Instead of a full organism floating in the gel, there was only a head. It was one of the most terrifying heads he had ever seen. Nearly twice the size of a human’s, it had dark grey skin and dead gold eyes in deep-set eye sockets. The nose was wide and flat, the mouth almost crab-like. A dozen tentacles grew out of its chin, some nearly a foot long, swaying gently in the current.

  “What the hell is this place?” Nicholas wondered out loud, only then noticing that Dag had left his side. “Dag?” He returned to the junction at the center of the room, finding the bot facing the door opposite the way they had come in. He read Dag’s posture as impatient. “This door then, I guess, huh.” It wasn’t a question. More a statement of acceptance. Dag knew that there was something more, perhaps even worse, behind the next door.

  It opened when he neared it, and Dag rushed through ahead of him. Nicholas wasn’t so eager to follow. The space beyond mirrored this one, only the tubes were larger.

  Much larger.

  And they held a menagerie of true horrors.

  There had to be one hundred or more tubes arranged in a checkerboard pattern, each one twenty feet in height and nearly eight feet in diameter. And each was filled with the same percolating gel and assortment of organisms.

  Closest to the door, a standard trife stood suspended in the gel, arms down, mouth slightly open. Familiar and not all that scary in stasis. On the other side was one of the armored trife, its tentacles wrapped around it, its head lowered. Another tube held a third trife, this one armored like the second but built more like the first.

  A fourth was just plain repulsive. It contained the full version of the head he had seen outside. The body was humanoid, broad and powerful. Apparently too big to remain upright in the gel, it was hunched down in a fetal position. Its huge hands had three fingers and a thumb, and it had cloven feet with just two big toes.

  He quickly scanned the other tubes as he walked down the center aisle, following Dag to the far end of the room. He paused again when his gaze landed on the first creature that didn’t match the others. The visual shock raised goosebumps along his arms and sent a chill down his spine.

  It was a woman. A human woman.

  But there was no way she had come from Earth.

  The differences between her and Earth humans were subtle but obvious. Her head was a little too large, her eyes too big, her mouth wider and fuller. Her limbs seemed longer and more delicate, her finger length to palm size disproportionate, the fingers longer than her palms. Her breasts were small but defined, her pubic mons completely devoid of hair. In fact, she didn’t have a single strand of hair anywhere on her body.

  Looking at the tubes beyond hers, he saw there were more examples of the same humanoids, both male and female, all with the same differences from Earth humans, suggesting they had all come from the same place. Were they the former residents of the city above? If not, where had they come from and how had they all wound up here with these monsters?

  “Cooperation. Facilitation. I require assistance. Hahahaha. Hahaha. Haha.”

  Nicholas had almost forgotten about the message, absorbed as he’d been in the curious contents of the tubes. It took him a few seconds in fact to realize the voice didn’t sound the same as it had before.

  It was louder.

  Closer.

  He looked for Dag, finding him sitting on a set of six low steps beyond the tubes. The steps led up to a podium where a softball-sized metal orb floated between a pair of pedestals. Round and flat, the ball was matte black, with tiny lines etched all over the surface.

  “Cooperation. Facilitation. I require assistance. Hahahaha. Hahaha. Haha.”

  Dag stood as Nicholas walked toward the podium, climbing the steps to stand on the platform in front of the floating orb. He stared at it. Obviously made of the same black alloy that all of the Foresights were skinned with, it was smooth and seamless. It looked completely innocuous.

  “Cooperation. Facilitation. I require assistance. Hahahaha. Hahaha. Haha.”

  The voice was coming from the orb, lower in volume now that he stood in front of the orb, and there was much less time between transmissions. Somehow, the orb seemed to sense his presence.

  “Cooperation. Facilitation. I require assistance. Hahahaha. Hahaha. Haha.”

  He supposed he should say something, but what? He finally decided on as few words as possible.

  “I’m Captain Nicholas Shepherd, United States Space Force. I’m here in response to your request for assistance.”

  The orb didn’t respond, leaving Nicholas feeling foolish for talking to it. He looked over at Dag. “Did Grimmel make this thing too?”

  He caught movement from the corner of his eye, drawing his attention back to the orb. A small aperture had opened at the top of the orb, and a pair of glowing rings escaped from it. The bottom of the orb suddenly started to spin, and the sides slid open to emit a second pair of spinning rings, enlarging and descending down around him.

  “Okay…” He tensed, but held his position. “...what now?”

  Dag walked up the steps and under the rings to join him as they cast an eerie red light around him. Then the rings began rotating so fast they painted the entire platform in red light as though it were a stage.

  For a hologram.

  It floated into being around them, placing them in the center of a room with dark, curtained walls.

  And then it started to play.

  Chapter 22

  The hologram depicted a number of the scaley black humanoids standing in a circle and looking down at the camera from overhead. Like the one that had stolen his identity, their blank faces expressed no emotion. Their demeanor was robotic, just like the imposter’s before it took on Nicholas’ human appearance.

  There was another, unique individual with them, also looking down at the camera. Dressed in a thick blue cloak, its shape was clearly humanoid too, but it was very thin and at least a head taller than the black figures. Only the delicate, faintly yellowish backs of its hands and intense green eyes were visible in the shadows of the cloak’s folds and hood. It had three long, narrow fingers and a thumb on each hand, the backs of the digits covered in short, thick, white hair.

  “I understand you call yourself Max,” it said, though it seemed to Nicholas that the words were being translated into English. He could hear a series of chirps and whistles behind the statement that he guessed was its actual language. Apparently, whomever had recorded this hologram must have understood both.

  The entire recording would have surprised him more if he hadn’t already guessed that Grimmel had had contact with aliens. And he doubted the man, if he was a man at all, was the only contact they’d had with Earth.