Arrival

ADIRA

It’s dark where it takes me.

The hole, the tu

But time is distorted as I move. Wrapped in terror. My own fear.

I clutch on to the claw as it pulls me forward, dimly aware that before me, there is light.

It’s dim, but enough for me to see.

It illuminates the entrance of the tu

But as the arm snakes through the seal, I realize it’s not plastic at all.

It’s like thin goo.

It coats my skin as the claw pulls me through the tu

I don’t get the chance to take a breath before I’m pulled into the water.

Water.

The entire chamber is filled with it.

I. Can’t. Breathe.

The claw releases me abruptly and snakes away somewhere, but I don’t care to watch it go.

My first instinct is to find air.

My arms flash out as I try to swim upward, but even as my body rises, fear fills my soul.

I don’t think there is a surface.

It’s clear, the water. So clear that a part of my mind realizes the dim light is actually coming from outside the Scrit.

There are lights dotting the interior too but they don’t look artificial.

They look like some form of bioluminescent plant life.

I push through the water upward. I need to reach the top. Hope there is an air pocket there. But as I move, something floats by me that stops my heart.

It’s encased in a thick membrane of what looks like the same goo that seals the entrance of the chamber.

A body.

Female.

Her belly is swollen. Movement within it.

My heart slams against my ribcage.

The other woman.

It’s the other woman.

I thought she’d be dead—I’m not sure she is alive.

There are things attached to her and I realize she’s not free-floating at all.

She’s hooked to the wall by some fleshy tendons that sway gently in the water around them.

Fear shoots up my spine and I try to move backward as I focus on where the tendons stem from.

I’m sure I’ll see the Gryken materialize there in the shadows but I am wrong.

Sudden movement comes from my right and there is no time to react.

Something thin and slimy wraps around my neck and I open my mouth in a scream.

Tentacles.

Instead of sound, all that escapes my mouth is the air my lungs desperately needs.

The bubbles float upward as I grab on to the tentacle with my free hand, but it’s incredibly strong.

And slimy.

My hand moves over it, catching no grip.

All I feel are several joints underneath the flesh of the long arm.

The Gryken.

I know it’s the monster even before its face appears before me.

Large dark eyes, bulbous in their sockets face me, and for a moment, I see death.

I forget about breathing.

I forget about life.

All I can see is this horror before me.

More of its tentacles appear behind it, fa

This is what hell’s gates look like.

As I grab at it, trying to find purchase, it pushes me downward.

It is strong. Stronger than it looks.

And this is its element.

More air bubbles escape my lips as we struggle.

There’s a pulsing in my head now as I’m pushed downward, as we stare at each other.

Me into the alien’s eyes. The Gryken into mine.

And then…

“You.”

In my mind I hear the word.

Like a thought.

A thought that isn’t my own.

The voice is like the hiss in my mind—one that frazzles my neurons and makes my head throb.

My eyes widen as I realize it is the Gryken speaking to me.

The pulsing in my mind doesn’t stop, and I feel my limbs going weak.

I sink, lower to the base of the chamber with the Gryken still holding on to me.

Distantly, I know my lungs are burning, but even if I want to breathe, I ca

I am…losing control of my body…of myself.

I’m losing control of my mind.

But I have to do this.

I ca

With the last energy left within me, I stop fighting against the arm around my neck and focus that energy toward the wall.

I push toward it, hoping the water will aid me.

We’ve sunken so low, we’re close enough for that last burst of energy to take me where I want to be.

There’s a singular moment where I know I’m going to be successful.

I meet the eyes of the Gryken.

Fuck.

You.

My arm co

For a moment, the Gryken’s hold loosens a bit.

There’s a flash of clarity as I feel the warmth spread across my entire being.

Cloaking me.

The ba’clan.

I can no longer feel the water on my skin and the pulsing in my mind dims.

I can only feel them.

It is different from every other time they’ve been on my skin.

This time, I can feel their energy, and they pulse. They pulse against me as if to tell me it’s going to be all right.

Any moment now.

This has got to work.

My lungs are about to expire, but I fold my legs toward my body before pushing outward with a kick that lands in the fleshy body of the Gryken.

A hiss sounds in my head so loud that it feels like my brain cells are frying.

The Gryken releases me suddenly, just as the chamber lights up.

An energy charge so strong it’s like lightning through the water fills up the space.

I see the Gryken before me clearly.

Its body jerks within the water, its tentacles constricting, twisting, and turning as the charge goes through it.

I don’t have time to think. I push off the wall back toward that tu

But I don’t manage to get there.

The room turns in an awful semicircle and the hole is suddenly on top.

Gravity feels like it is pulling me down as I fight against it to swim upward.

But I’m hardly moving.

It feels like there is something pulling me back.

Because there is.

Behind me, a tentacle is wrapped around my leg.

The Gryken.

It isn’t dead.

But I knew it wouldn’t be.

The whole point of this is to capture it alive!

But there’s just one problem with that.

It’s not letting me leave here.

It’s taking me down with it.