The Beguiler
Nov 29, 2022 8:45:52 GMT -5
Post by Radrook Admin on Nov 29, 2022 8:45:52 GMT -5
The Beguiler
by
Radrook
They had seen it all from orbit, Sprawling glittering cities of fine glass and glittering metals with wide paved avenues leading to the horizon like spokes from a wheel encircled by lush green vegetation. They could also see roiling clouds crisscrossed with streaks of lighting that stabbed downward accompanied by booming thunder. What they hadn't seen were the builders.by
Radrook
"What do you think of all this?" Mcgruber the science officer asked the captain.
"Well, beats me! City's are intact. No evidence of warfare, plague or even of mass evacuation.!
"Where are they then?": McGruder asked in an irritated voice as he nervously scanned from side to side and kept his right hand at ready just in case he needed to use his weapon.
"Look here!" Gonzales the expedition exo-geologist knelt beside what seemed to be tractor tracks gauged deeply into the pavement.
"Looks recent to me. No signs of erosion and you know how often it rains on this world"
Sunahara knew he was right. Despite their glittering cities the planet seemed neglected. As if the inhabitants had only cared about their own small niches which they carefully carved out of the environment. Just enough to keep the ever-encroaching jungle out but never enough to halt it. Rainfall was a daily affair on this anomaly world where technology and nature seemed to coexist in uneasy terms. So Gonzales was right.
The tracks had to be recent. Otherwise they would have been washed away by the torrential downpour that pelted everything like a whip lashing from an irate nature goddess. To the northeast clouds were beginning to form and were being driven toward the city by the planet's atmospheric convection currents that sometimes reached hurricane speeds. The air began to smell strongly of ozone and lightning forked in the distance followed by an unearthly deep rumbling thunder as if mountainous bowling pins were being toppled shook the city's structures to their foundations causing glass to shatter and fall on the deserted avenues below.
Their ship had been placed in a gully between high mountains to protect from the incessant shearing winds . But they were exposed and needed shelter quick. There was an underpass ahead on the avenue they had been exploring. Quickly they scurried under just as the punishing downpour began to lash from an angered sky. It was then they heard the low mournful moan from a dark recess.
"Who goes there? Identify yourself!" Captain McGruder un-holstered his ultrasonic and was aiming it in the direction of the sound. He had also engaged his translator apparatus which could instantly form a synaptic bond between tow minds of different cultures and make communication possible.
The three men held their ground and waited . Other missions on many planets had taught them not to overreact to alien behavior that seemed hostile as had the first human expeditions a hundred years past. Such expeditions had proven costly since once alien trust was lost it had proven almost impossible t .regain and diplomatic relations tense for decades.
The captain's question had remained unanswered which could mean that the creature in hiding was an unintelligent predatory beast lead only by unreasoning instinct.
"Set weapons to kill" he ordered and immediately the underpass was filled with the throbbing hum of the ultrasonics ready to disgorge their deadly energies.
As if in response the creature emerged from out of the deep shadows revealing an egg shaped skull with yellow skin and emerald round eyes. It was slender of shIt had a mere slit for a mouth and showed no evidence of teeth. Its gender wasn't clear since if it wasn't mammalian then breasts wouldn't be evident. Its long, flowing, silk-like white garment sashed at the waist with a glass-like belt with ruby buckle hid whatever other anatomical indication of gender might have been evident if it had been naked. But of course gender wasn't their primary concern right now. Friendliness or belligerence was. ape. Wasp wasted and with long tendrils where arms should have be .
"Who?" the translator crackled Who are you?"
"We are from another world that circles the lights in your sky!" Captain Magruder enunciated in the softest friendliest voice he could muster. He was a big gruff fellow who towered above his peers and his voice tended to boom So the effort needed to tone it down was considerable. From the lights above?" The creature blinked three times as it gestured with one pale tentacle at the rapidly clouding sky outside the underpass. Perhaps it had misunderstood. After all, all it could see above now was a clouded sky. Perhaps it thought that the captain was saying he that they came from the clouds. Or that they wee from the sun. Who knew what the alien was thinking? After all, their was absolutely no evidence that they had mastered spaceflight or even attempted it. Maybe they were still worshipping deities of nature as humans had once done in order to make some sense of the hostile world that assailed them.
Maybe he thought the humans some gods that had been predicted to come just as the Aztecs had confused the Spaniards with their gods. Gonzales had warned then that such could be the case.
"Just because they are technologically sophisticated in one area doesn't mean that they aren't primitive in others"
Then Gonzales had mentioned example after example of exo-solar worlds where such was the case. Worlds where humans had been approached and worshipped as if gods. Where their descending from the sky had been enough to convince sophisticated creatures that they were dealing with the supernatural. Such worlds had been easy to conquer since the servile demeanor of the aliens lent itself to that sort of exploitation. But later appeared the deceivers providing the bait only to attack and slaughter. Many human lives had been lost. But not one since then.
"From the lights above?" the creature repeated and seemed to wait expectantly for a reply..
"Yes" from the nighttime lights above." he spoke carefully into his translator and waited for it to make its reply. There was sometimes a considerable lag between question and reply. Especially if the alien in question was a new species. In such cases the unfamiliar neurotransmissions could temporarily baffle the translator and it had to probe deeper and make connections between images and syntax before replying. As the captain waited for the reply to come the sound of the downpour was pelting all about the terrain and visibility had been reduced to a few feet.
"Better set up a force field at both entrances as a precaution." The captain ordered. Detector range five miles and area scanners to the limit. We don't want any nasty surprises
The creature had looked on as if mesmerized by their chatter. Sometimes its expressions seemed as those of a child totally perplexed by the incomprehensible antics of adults. At others it gave the distinct impression of a wise old wizard cunningly watching their every move. The captain of course had not re-holstered his weapon but held it pointed at the alien's chest as it stood in the semi dark corner from which it seemed reluctant to totally emerge. Meanwhile Gonzales add Magruder set up the perimeter defenses as they had been instructed to.
"All set!" Gonzales pressed his utility belt and the two outward concaved anti matter force fields hummed into existence.
"Nothing's coming through there!" he added proudly and stared apprehensively at the alien who had now fully revealed itself. The other two men stared as well.
The alien towered above them all, which was disconcerting since humans always felt uneasy around aliens who were taller. Sure, they ha become accustomed. But this was a exaggeration that through just couldn't ignore. The creature was at least twelve feet tall, head almost scraping the arched underpass's ceiling. Its tentacles that had seemed inoffensive had taken on an ominous appearance since they now extended the full length of its body and undulated like snakes.
It was only the alien's serene angel-like face that stopped the three of them from either bolting in panic across the anti matter shields or opening fire. Its face after all, bespoke peace, a deep tranquility that they had never beheld anywhere else in the sphere of human extraterrestrial experience. It spoke of compassion, forgiveness. Then again humans had come across certain aliens who could morph or lull victims into a dreamlike condition in order to render them helpless just before they attacked.
But mankind had long since taken the necessary precaution against such deceit and their instruments have no warning of and metabolic anomaly, ally characteristic of form morphers or any indication of brain wave activity characteristic of creatures capable of hallucinatory transmissions. No, the indicators simply said alien, of carbon based composition, blood containing hemoglobin and brain activity similar to human albeit with a larger cerebral hemisphere and an integrated corpus colostrums.
"My name is Bruce McGruder, this is my science officer Kim Sunahara and Geologist Miguel Gonzales."
The captain pointed slowly with his left unarmed hand to his two companions who now stood nervously by his side.
"What is your name?" the captain slowly said and waited for the translator to probe the alien's brain for the equivalent phrase in its language. Noticing that the three men standing before it were obviously in fear, the alien willed its tentacles come to rest limply by its side like lifeless ropes. The men got the impression that it placed a great strain on its nervous system since it twitched from what they believed was its great effort.
"My name is Sage," the creature uttered in a soft timid voice that emanated more from its chest than its mouth. It was a distant voice, as if it were traversing not only the space between them but the vast unimaginable spaces of time itself and hurling aside the seemingly insurmountable species barriers that separated them.
Captain Marguber found himself holstering his weapon and securing it with the safety. Both men at his side relaxed. It was as if the very voice of the alien itself had a magical calming power. Not the evil calming power of malevolence. No, they had been thoroughly trained to detect that sort of deception by being exposed to it repeatedly until the slight exposure would trigger their violent response.
No this was definitely different. The voice itself barely registered on the audible range but it seeped down deem to what some might consider their very soul, It delved there for a second and removed all the bitterness and suspicion that was festering and waiting to uncoil the savagery for which humans had become known despite their best efforts to prevent it.
It permeated their subconscious, luring out memories of Earth, its seas, its forests, its majestic mountains, the memories of loves long past. Leaving them mesmerized and swooning in a semi-conscious stupor. Then having gently removed or nullified all fear and all possibility of resistance, the creature unfurled its daggered proboscis and cut them all to pieces as its kind had done with all the planet's inhabitants before they could even utter a scream.