Chapter Sixty-Four

Everything began slowing down for her as the Spectrum coursed through her. Each second seemed expanded, and time itself aligned to her motions, giving her a clearness and focus as the world around her marched onward in slow motion.

She rolled onto all fours, gazing into the hull of the alien ship through the shield, focused on getting inside to fulfill her mission. The deep, dark hole appeared to have no bottom. If heading down the proverbial rabbit hole was a trip into oblivion, a place of no return, Viktoriya couldn’t even imagine what peril she may encounter at the bottom of this infernal pit.

The thundering, cracking sound of the ice encasing the ship surrounded them like a chaotic symphony, the moist air now filled with ice shards and wetness.

“What’s that!?” CLEFF said, turning his head to look at a fresh wave of greenish glow, slowly progressing over the ship, making its way toward them over the surface. He automatically ran his analysis, and Viktoriya could have sworn he gasped just before saying, “Oh no, no!”

She turned to see the ice around the ship’s circumference vaporizing and shattering upward from the ground.

“We have to get in now, Vik! The secondary shield encases the ship with a thermal layer of seven hundred degrees kelvin! I am noticing the—”

He was still talking when she raised her hands, making fists to strike the shield, both arms high above her head, and screamed out in anger and rage at the very thought of this dark existence that was here and about to take every life of her family, friends, CLEFF and the entire human race.

“Viktori-Ya! Look, your hands!” he called.

Viktoriya brought her hands down to see the spiral vortex of a bluish-rainbow glow running from her fingertips to her elbows.

Her hands glowed vibrantly, with the same illumination as the Spectrum, only much brighter.

She raised both hands, one human, one CyberArm, again high above her head, interlacing her fingers, making a double fist, yelling with all her might, then slamming her fists down and striking the shield with all her strength. The shield immediately retreated from her blow, opening with a deep, percussive tone, rippling away like the surface of a perfectly still lake that had an enormous stone dropped into it. It left a gaping circular opening where the hull was exposed, allowing gravity to take over as they fell inside.

CLEFF tracked three anchor points as they fell through the hull, securely grabbing the nearest one as they plummeted, grabbing her by her rappelling gear.

“Thanks, CLEFF!”

“Anytime, my dear Viktori-Ya!”

“I think they made their shield of the same energy plasma as the Spectrum. I’m sure it’s the same thing… How can that be?”

“That was close, Viktori-Ya!”

“Sir! They are in!”

There was no time to celebrate or question what had happened. The ship had almost broken free now. She felt the vibrations as it continued to rise gently and ever so patiently.

CLEFF tracked three anchor points as they fell through the hull, securely grabbing the nearest one as they plummeted, while also grabbing her by her repelling gear, as she now dangled from his hand.

“Thanks, CLEFF!”

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“Anytime, my dear Vik!”

“Secure my line quickly! I have to go!”

“Your line is secure. However, I need approximately ten seconds to deploy my anchor cable to accompany you.”

“Come as soon as you can. I have to get down there now. Look! His command pod is encased in the same type of shield covering the outside! I’m going down!”

“I’ll be right there, Viktori-Ya!”

She scrutinized the area. The dim green lights that illuminated the walls stretched out. From within, it was almost impossible to imagine the ship had the flat, circular shape it featured outside. Even though the environment seemed harmless enough on its own, she would not be deceived for one minute of the darkness, the evil that lurked there.

She told herself she must be brave.

Somehow, someway, hold together.

For just a moment, she wished to escape to another place, where everyone was not in peril. A place where Earth was as blissful and peaceful, and the survival of humanity did not depend on her success to survive.

But the world, the entire human race, did, in fact, depend on her. And as much as she imagined and hoped to be in some other world, in some other time, riding elegant horses on a sunny, spring day without a care, galloping away to a destination that she wasn’t even aware that she wanted to visit, she was here now.

“No, stop… I have to focus… Please…” she mentally shooed away the enticing drift into a safe, more peaceful construct.

Viktoriya tightened her jaw and then balled her fists into a furious blue glow.

She remained captive to her task, which drew her back from her momentary, wonderful escape.

“I can do this.”

She continued to the lower chamber while the alien kept his sluggish gaze fixed on her through the glowing, translucent command pod. He reclined, encircled by the plasma shield around his control center. His movements slurred as if he was waking up from forever while the ship was still powering up from the accidental connection made by the exploratory team when they first entered.

The creature stared at her, but rather than the fear she was expecting to take hold, the only thing she felt was raw hatred for what that being represented.

The hatred born from the thought of this alien, which desired nothing other than to destroy her planet and kill her friends. To bring The End of All.

The gaze of the green-aura encased alien was nothing short of a challenge to her as she gritted her teeth even more, staring back at him with a passion to defend her loved ones.

He has the green aura, the same as the man at the museum.

As it rose further, the ship developed a low-humming cyclic vibration, cracking sheets of thick ice as it broke free from under the surface, now listing heavily to one side.

As she drew closer, she again began feeling overwhelmed by her emotions, knowing only this one thing that kept repeating in her mind: that she had to save everyone she held dear, and that she could not fail, and that she must be brave.

Viktoriya’s hands glowed even more vibrantly, with a bluish translucent Spectral flame engulfing her arms to the point she illuminated the entire area around her.

Being fueled and enraged by her overwhelming desire to save humanity and defeat this darkness that was attempting to snuff out their light, she drew her arm back as far as she could, then swung her fist to land a blow on the shield. It immediately rippled away, with a percussive sub-tone vibrating through the air, much like the one protecting the ship’s hull. Her impact left a gaping opening through which she and the alien now stared at one another, face-to-face.

“He has the… aura, a dark-green… dark aura emanating from within… What—”

The creature sprang to her and thrust his hands from within the capsule, reaching through the large opening. Clamping one large hand around her throat and the other encasing her head, it began trying to crush and extinguish Viktoriya’s light.

Her CyberArm instinctively grabbed his wrist, attempting to break the grip on the carbon fiber collar attaching her android limb to her body.

Deafening alarms and repeating alerts came as a chorus from behind her, drowning out her audible surroundings, as she heard,

“Directive triple zero, protect Viktori-Ya at all costs.”

“Directive triple zero, protect Viktori-Ya at all costs.”

CLEFF slammed hard against the capsule, grabbing the alien’s arms, crushing them with his powerful mechanized grip as the cracking of glass-like bones snapped in Viktoriya’s ears, breaking the hold it had on her neck and skull. He then forcefully yanked the alien away from her by its broken arms and pulled the creature tightly against himself.

He yelled to her, “I’ve got this from here, love!” as his chest plates folded open, exposing his array of miniaturized gunnery. Kicking away from the pod, he rappelled another few meters down to avoid harming her. The thundering sound of repeating machine-gunnery blasts and exploding rounds echoed throughout the ship—the explosions and munitions slaying the alien beyond recognition, shredding it with a relentless onslaught until CLEFF’s gunnery was nearly overheated.

“Target terminated.”

Viktoriya, hanging there by her harness, said quietly, “I feel nauseous. I think, I think I’m gonna puke.”