Alpha Rising by G.L. Douglas Page B

prodded her out the door, never offering to help
with the heavy load.
    Trudging across the barren planet with the
Rook on her heels, Kaz’s cynical side surfaced at seeing red laser
lights zinging from the alien spacecraft’s windows. The lights
looked like those in a trendy nightclub, but this nightclub was
more likely a taxi to hell. She looked at the Rook and mindlessly
grumbled, “I hate nightclubs and taxis.”
    He ignored her. When they reached his ship
he lifted a journal from her arms, thumbed through the pages then
slammed it shut. “You wasted my time on this primitive drivel?” He
grabbed the other books from her grasp and strode to the gurgling
lake.
    Kaz caught up just as he hurled one of the
books into the water. She swatted at his arms and yelled, “Stop it!
Don’t destroy our records.”
    “ We have no use for such
nonsense.” He flung the second and third books into the lake then
turned around with a humorless laugh. She lunged like a wildcat and
knocked him off balance. His arms windmilled like an overwound toy
as he pitched backward into the bubbling black water. When he tried
to stand, a froth of gray foam stuck to his blue bodysuit and took
him back down.
    Kaz hid her amusement. “Thrash in your
bubblebath, Bigfoot,” she whispered with a smirk.
    The Rook crawled to shore on hands and
knees, coughing, sputtering, and uttering a rash of strange words.
The gold cross and chain fell from his utility belt onto the sand,
unnoticed. He grabbed Kaz by the arm. “That death lake could have
killed me.”
    “ Death lake?”
    “ Shut up.” He shoved her
toward his ship.
    She complained all the way. “Stop it, you’re
hurting me. You’re not very nice. Where are you taking us?”
    He pushed her onto the bench beside her
crewmates. The door sucked closed on his words. “To Ulwor—the
Ultimate World.”
    As the ship ascended, its
red laser lights cast a hellish aura over the golden sand and
churning lake. From narrow rectangular windows, the earthlings saw
a fading glimpse of the space station with the two smaller ships
tucked under its wings. The words United
States of America near the AstroLab’s tail
bid them farewell. Kaz’s cry for Bach blended in with the engines’
whine.
     
    #
     
    When the enemy ship went airborne, the
vacuum-like pressure under the boulder eased off and Bach struggled
to swim out. Billions of hissing bubbles clung to him as if trying
to restrain him, but he fought with every stroke to surface, and
exploded from the water gasping for breath. The hot air reeked of
noxious rocket fuel, yet he hungrily sucked it deep into his lungs
as he staggered from the lake and fell to his knees.
    He looked into the black Jenesis sky as the
last speck of red light from the agents’ ship vanished into the
darkness. He closed his eyes, but the image wouldn’t leave, and the
finality of it all stirred emotions he’d never felt before. Alone
and shivering, Bach wept. “I failed them. They were lost. It was my
job to get them home, now they’re lost again, and Faith is dead.”
He pounded the sand and gnashed his teeth so hard his jaw hurt.
“I’m closer to heaven, so why am I tasting hell?”
    When an ounce of courage finally opened his
eyes, Bach pushed himself up from the sand. But there was something
more than sand beneath his right hand. He lifted Faith’s necklace
from the shore and stroked the small cross, wondering how it got
there. Staring into space, he put the necklace in his pocket with a
cry of anguish that echoed across the desolate landscape. Then he
turned back to the lake and waded in, waist deep, to his shoulders,
then disappearing beneath the frothy surface.
    The water churned and bubbled like a witch’s
cauldron.
     
     
    *****
     
     

CHAPTER NINE
     
     
    Soaked to the bone and covered in seething
bubbles, Bach slogged to shore with a logbook in his hands.
    He refreshed himself with a
few deep breaths then, hoping to find the other two journals, waded
back into