by Seven

Disclaimer:  Earth: Final Conflict and its characters are copyrighted by Tribune Entertainment Company.  All
rights reserved.
 
 

**********
 
 

*Afterwards, what can we do?*

Zo'or felt himself jerk spasmodically as he sensed the death of another Taelon. Not just any death: a
horrible, violent one. He felt as though icy insects were crawling along his body as he began walking in
circles.

Why did this upset him so? He had become reconciled to the fact that Taelons would, in fact, die before
they regained the ability to procreate. He sat back down in his command chair and waved the datastream
into view, then drew up the banks of recorded deaths...

****

Liam Kincaid whistled happily as the shuttle whizzed out of ID right outside the mothership. In the short
months of his life his intelligent part-Kimera brain, coupled with Beckett and Sandoval's memories, had
allowed him to become an excellent pilot.

He was also relaxed because Da'an was relaxed. The Taelon diplomat often had to endure stressful
situations, and Liam was happy whenever Da'an was happy. Da'an had become upset an hour or so
before, when he had sensed the death of a Taelon, but had calmed down sufficiently since then.

But neither of them understood the nightmare that was waiting.

****

Volunteer Will Standish couldn't understand it. The power levels on the mothership were dropping for no
reason, and the containment field in the biolab were unstable. He frowned; better safe than sorry.

"Doctor!" he called to the Taelon MD on duty. The Taelon looked at him somewhat irritably. "The
containment fields are unstable right now, and dangerous biomatter might be released. We have to leave
this section until the problem is repaired."

The doctor grimaced and put down the samples he had been studying. "How long will it take?" he asked.

Standish shrugged. "A couple hours, tops."

But something hard cracked against the back of his neck. He stumbled forward, and tried to turn around,
but the same hard surface smashed against his face. For a moment, all Standish could do was gasp.

The he heard the rushing sound of Taelon life-energy dissipating. He rolled over. The MD was gone.

And in his place was a hideous creature, like a demon from hell. It was as though someone had taken a
human, deformed it, starved it into a walking skeleton, and had somehow burned away part of its face.
Hot red coals burned as it looked at Standish.

Standish was so afraid he could barely speak. He hit the emergency button on his global. "Emergency!" he
screamed. "Unknown intruder! Help! He-"

His cries ended in a choked gurgle.

****

Liam dashed into the biolab, after hearing the Volunteer screaming in pain and fear. He spotted a pair of
legs sticking out of a cabinet. "Volunteer?" he called. "Volunteer?"

He looked inside the cupboard, and retched. The young man's face looked as though someone had
poured acid on it. He was quite obviously dead.

Liam staggered out of the biolab, trying to keep his gag reflex under control. And the lights, he noticed,
were very dim today.

****

Da'an gasped as he felt another Taelon leave the Commonality.

****

"There's a sudden drop in power every half hour," Sandoval reported to Zo'or.

Zo'or was paying only marginal attention. "And?" he asked, scrolling through the list on his datastream.

Sandoval looked somewhat offput by the response, but stated, "Unless we regain power during the next
few hours, the drain will become critical."

Zo'or waved the datastream away and asked, "Agent Sandoval, where are Da'an and Major Kincaid? They
were scheduled to arrive at the mothership nearly fifteen minute ago."

As if on cue, Liam came onto the bridge. His face was drawn and pale, and there was a hint of a stagger
in his walk. "Sandoval, I just got back from the lab. Someone killed... a Taelon.... and a Volunteer."

"How?" Sandoval asked alertly.

"I don't know about the Taelon, but the human's face was all..." Liam groped for words. "Eaten away."

Sandoval looked a little ill at the mental picture, but he went out the door, almost bumping into Da'an. He
nodded to his former boss and left swiftly, calling for a few of the Volunteers to come with him.

Lili entered the room right behind Liam. "What's going on?" she asked. "I was tracing the power drain when
suddenly my console quit working."

Suddenly the lights blinked off. There were startled cries all around from the Volunteers, until Liam's voice
rose above them all, "DON'T PANIC! STAY CALM!"

A faint glimmer of light appeared, Lili holding a lighter with the words "Semper Fi" emblazoned on it. In the
faint light, Zo'or looked furious. "Agent Sandoval assured me that the power drain would only become
critical in the next few hours."

"Perhaps he miscalculated," Da'an murmured.

"No, that sort of sudden drain means that someone pulled the plug," Liam stated, looking around in the
darkness. "Sandoval knows that, he's probably going to go fix it right now."

Da'an watched his protector circle the room. "Liam, what are you looking for?"

"I don't know, exactly, but there's still a killer on the loose," Liam said, vanishing from the light, then
reappearing. "And he doesn't seem to see a difference between humans and Taelons. Another thing I
noticed at the biolab was that the lights were partially turned off."

"And then there were none," wavered one of the Volunteers.

Lili uttered a nervous chuckle as the tiny flame flickered madly. "Liam, this lighter isn't going to last
forever. It's beginning to die."

Liam thought briefly about using his shakarava to light up the bridge, and then dismissed it as ludicrous.
Da'an's voice piped up suddenly from the corner, "It's here."

"Where?" the Volunteer nearby called out, aiming his skrill at the darkness.

"Hey, point that thing elsewhere," Liam shouted irritably. "Where is it, Da'an?"

"I do not know, I... simply feel its presence," Da'an said haltingly, fear touching his voice. A scoffing noise
from Zo'or was heard from the dais.

*Beerzerp* The sound of Liam's global caused almost everyone to jump. He pulled it out, and asked, "Who
is this? I can't see you."

"It's Sandoval. Someone disconnected the power coil. It will be operational in less than a minute."

"Sandoval," Liam said tensely. "There's something here with us. It's already killed at least two people, and
we have nowhere to run."

"I'll see if I can get it up any faster." Sandoval cut the link. At that exact moment, Lili's lighter went dark.

Liam felt something brush past him, heading for the dais. He lashed out and screamed as his skin blistered
and burned. He whipped out his gun and fired towards the dais. The first and second shots had no effect,
but there was an unearthly shriek as the third met its mark. A thud. And silence.

"Don't move!" Lili commanded. "Da'an, Zo'or?"

"We are all right," Zo'or stated tensely. "Where is it?"

"It's right in front of you, I think," Liam said waveringly, wiping his hand against his pants and trying not to
gasp. "I just burned my skin off... I touched it..."

"Liam, let me see," Lili asked.

Just then, the lights came on, and Liam's hand was forgotten in favor of the... *thing* sprawled in front of
Zo'or's chair, twisted in pain. It was humanoid, with gray and black burned skin, a skin-and-bones
appearance, and a pair of red eyes that, even dying, burned like fire.

****

"What was it?" Liam asked Da'an as they left the bridge. "Why was it aiming for you and Zo'or specifically?"

Da'an looked pained. "That creature... was one of our earliest genetic attempts to defeat the Jaridians.
One of our first bioengineered life-forms."

"That was a monster."

"I know. And I regret it," Da'an said, clearly meaning every word of it. "Not... all of our bioengineering
results were as favorable as the skrill. That creature and others like it, monsters, things that we created
through DNA manipulation, were locked away, out of the sight of the Taelons."

"See no evil, hmm?" Liam asked. "I can't even get an answer out of anyone about whether or not the
creature existed."

"Exactly," Da'an said. "Now... perhaps it is best that the creature escaped. For if they are capable of
escape... then we must face what we have done to them. And how much they desire revenge."