Invid Lullaby

Chapter 8

Hit-or-miss
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The surreal sight struck Scott. Gloved fingers glowed under the intense lights of the operating room. An egg, about 5 inches wide, was held by them. The disembodied image in front of him grew closer. Seemingly, objects were moving toward him. He saw an old man's mouth moving, Lang. Words were being said, yet he couldn't make them out. The doctor carefully handed the egg to him. "Son," he distinguished from the meaningless mix of sounds his brain received. An egg!

From then, Scott couldn't process any thoughts coherently. As if he was hearing it through water, Scott perceived Lang's distorted voice giving orders in the background. He saw technicians working and felt the cold metal ring from a sensor they had attached to his son. The young man's blue eyes drifted from the egg in his hands to Marlene. She was not moving. As Lang's personnel wrapped up their work and moved away from her, a nauseous swirl coated the pit of the Captain's stomach.

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"An egg" was definitely not what Emil Lang had expected; moreover, it was not at all what previous tests had predicted. "The baby," by all known means, had shown to be humanoid in nature and had no visible shell. De latest skans vere proof... De skans... Lang searched for Kralea. The alien was nowhere to be found. Of kourse. He closed his eyes remembering an old curse in his native language. I zhould have known.

The scientist's dark eyes moved onto Scott. He had walked toward the operation islet where Marlene lay on the table. Petrified, he stood just in front of her, cradling their son. Vill he faint? Lang feared. But the young man composed himself, he only turned ghostly pale and was unable to articulate word. He held on, in total numbness.

That wasn't a bad thing at the moment. The scientist had no time to console him, deal with his godson's temper or answer a round of unrelenting questions.

"Scott." He shook him lightly.

"Uh?" he barely reacted.

"Protect your son," Lang whispered.

The scientist typed commands into his terminal with what seemed inhuman speed. Without delay, he activated a circular protective force field around the operation area. Usually employed to isolate delicate cases from external contamination, the shield would not allow any pathogen in or out, or any substance for that matter. At that moment, though, bacteria wasn't what Lang had in mind.

Send security to the lab and seal off the entire medical section, immediately. The old man commanded silently from his terminal. Promptly, security personnel appeared and hastily crossed the sterilization chamber into the room. Confused mumbles erupted ubiquitously .

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"You idiot!" Baraka roared while his assassin's fist struck Kralea, sending him on his hands and knees.

"I didn't know what to do, sir!" Kralea apologized. "Lang insisted on doing the test himself!" The Karbarran whined and watched Baraka's subordinate's fear-inspiring face. "He would have found out! We'd have been discovered!" Kralea added just before a booted foot busted the air out of him.

Baraka fumed, not bothering to watch as the pounding continued. Suddenly, he turned and with one look, stopped Kralea's torment. The battered alien whimpered on the floor.

"What is it exactly that you wanted Kralea?"

"The Ambassador orders were to... to... K...kill it... them."

So the Ambassador's claw was on this. Stupid fossil! Baraka was in a foul mood. Then, very calmly, he asked: "Are they dead?"

"I... I don't know," Kralea shrieked. "Lang took... an egg out of the Invid's womb. And she was so weak... she's probably dead by now. I fled during the confusion."

"An egg?" Kralea hurried to nod.

"Interesting... And the Invid's probably dead?" Another nod. Baraka meditated. Kralea saw the window of opportunity opening for him to escape. He crept slowly towards the exit, but that ludicrous attempt ignited his captor's rage.

Baraka's venomous voice vibrated. "Because of you, Kralea, what we seek is in Lang's hands and we have nothing!"

"I just followed orders... The human doesn't know about it, sir! There's a chance he..." pleaded Kralea.

"Lang's old, not an idiot like you!" he cut him off.

"The Ambassador..." Kralea tried.

"Ambassador Lraon is a pathetic example of our race!" Kralea saw his end approaching. "You are of no further us to me."

"No! Please, sir!" Kralea begged.

"Now you'll shut your mouth!" Baraka looked at his hatchet man. The latter proceeded to silence Kralea's screaming with mechanical efficiency.

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A piercing scream disrupted the town's peaceful night and waked everyone up. Lancer sprung up next to his wife.

"What is it, Sera? Are you okay?" She trembled shrouded in cold sweat.

"Something horrible happened!" she let out. At that moment, Rand and Rook entered running. "Is everything all right?" asked Rand. "We heard someone screaming!"

Lancer gestured for them to wait and be quiet.

"What, Sera? What happened?" the singer asked. Adrenaline wiggled its way up his spine. A bad feeling nibbled at his brain.

"My sister... she's hurt!" Sera cried, clutching her arms around herself.

"Are you sure, darling? Couldn't it had been just a bad dream?"

"No, Lancer, Marlene's been hurt! And her baby! I can't feel him anymore. Something happened to him too!" Sera whimpered. Lancer hugged her understanding the pain was twofold. If Marlene and her baby were in fact damaged or destroyed by xenophobic hatred - he clasped his wife's body harder- there is no hope for us to have a family either.

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After the force field closed, isolating them from the rest of the operating room, Scott finally had time to take in all that happened. The pain of thinking she had died overwhelmed him to the point of impeding any rational thought. His emotions were so intense and contradictory that they had rendered him static. A wave of frustration rushed through him. He momentarily forgot he had been cradling his son, until the heat emanating from the shell penetrated the protective material of his uniform to reach his skin. The sensation nagged at him, pushing his senses to return to reality. What?

Carefully, he placed down the egg next to Marlene and caressed her forehead lovingly. She would have liked to hold him. She was so pale, and still warm. Suddenly, the sanitary scents typical of a medical facility crammed his nose; the shapes of the instruments around him became in focus; the sequential sounds of the sensors plugged onto Marlene found his ears. He saw the indicators, she was still alive!

"Doctor Lang!" he yelled, realizing after, that Marlene, the baby and him were alone. A black circular force field isolated them from the rest of the lab. What the hell's going on?

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Outside, Lang and security dealt with the lab's personnel. Kralea had escaped, unfortunately. The equipment was examined and the logs analyzed. Unfruitful interrogation of each crew member continued. One by one they were being released and warned to remain where they could be found at a later time.

Rick and Lisa had been summoned. The sealing of an entire section of the base was usually synonym of a major crisis developing and required a major official presence.

"Emil, what happened?" asked Lisa seeing the situation inside Lang's lab.

"Vhat didn't," he sighed, causing worried frowns to cover both admirals' foreheads. In that moment, an investigator approached the chief scientist.

"We've discovered that insanely high levels of radiation emanated during the scanner's last active session. Take a look at the log," the investigator offered, showing her hand-held electronic pad to Lang. The scientist saw it immediately. The variation was evident, almost clumsy but also, deadly.

"What does that mean, Emil?" inquired Lisa

"There has been an attempt on Marlene's and her baby's life," Lang told her and her husband, at last.

"It can't be! My God... How are they?" Lisa was shocked.

"Vell, Marlene is veak, but ve managed to stabilize her, Scott eez vith her, behind de protection field," he pointed to the black cylinder occupying the middle of the room. "I didn't vant anyone getting klose to them before sekurity arrived."

"Why is your crew being questioned?" said Rick noticing security scrutinizing each technician.

"One of my assistants, Kralea Drrak, a Karbarran, has fled, Rick," he paused. "Security eez on pursuit."

"Was he responsible for this?" Rick spoke.

"Apparently."

"What reason did he have to attack a pregnant woman and her baby? Such cruelty!"

"His race vas never varm to our Invid mother and her baby."

"Simple hatred?" Rick couldn't believe that was the sole cause.

"I suspekt more," Lang was on the same page as him. "Kralea joined de team late, he replaced my previous assistant, Ruk'ya. She vas my scanner operator and disappeared vithout a kredible explanation not so long ago. I don't have to tell you about de huge pressure that vas set on me to inkorporate a Karbarran expert into my group."

"I remember, Emil," pointed Rick. "The Ambassador pulled all his strings." Lang nodded.

"But how's the baby?" Lisa said, remembering that important detail.

Lang's expression hardened. "He eez out."

"Ah! Can we see him?" Let out Lisa relieved.

"He eez out, but not born yet," Lang was quick to add. "He eez not exaktly like ve had foreseen." Lisa and Rick stiffened.

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Baraka's yellowish eyes were tainted orange. He paced in his now quiet office bitten by the negative turn events had taken. Lraon dares to go behind my back with my own men! I'm going to teach you, illustrious Ambassador of Karbarra, whom not to ever betray!

"Lang will find out easily about the rays that moron shot into the Invid!" He spat to no one in particular. His fingers contracted into fists. "I'm surrounded by incompetence!"

In one corner, his assassin pondered if he should risk speaking. "There's still a way to succeed at our purpose, sir," he finally spoke. Baraka turned to him, intrigued and he listened.

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Posted on: 2005-01-09

• New Beginnings
• Investigation
• Intervention
• Freedom Lost
• Heaven and Hell
• Missing Pieces
• Panic
• Hit of Miss
• Night Watch
• Awakening
• Confrontation
• Revenge
• Council
• Unraveling
• Finality
• Epilogue