Terror on Arrival: An Apocalyptic Science Fiction Novel

Everybody’s full of it, Jayde thought. Alexi and the doctor were getting mythical, and celestial, respectively. They have lived on different continents, yet they were collectively ‘out there’.

Their actions really confused her. One was an analytical scientist, the other, a hardened soldier. They shouldn’t believe in myths, and sky fairy-tales.

How could rational men believe in irrationality? That queried catechism threw her.

She looked at the doctor’s history. He taught her! Everything she knew about aqua-science she’d learned from him! Did his new statement question her competency? If he taught her, and he thought that way, what did he actually teach her?

Alexi’s been through secret overthrow attempts, nuclear heist endeavors, civil disobedience struggles, and troop command. She hadn’t known him long, but you don’t get promoted in any military without mental adequacy. Sitting at her table in her room, she didn’t know what to think.

“All your questions will be answered,” an ominous, omnipresent voice emanated throughout her room.

She quickly reached for her firearm that wasn’t there. She wasn’t military police. Frustrated, she whipped around to see what she saw on the ocean floor!

“The mermaid! How in Hell did you get in my room!?” Jayde was completely surprised.

“I know the lore of this planet’s history. Although I have trans-morphed my figure to suit the conditions of this world, I am not your fabled mermaid,” the mysterious figure said. “Since my kind is eons in advancement to your kind, a doorway is primitively rudimentary. We can phase through non-uniform molecules. You’re what is called a scientist, so I believe you are competent enough to understand my actions.”

Jayde felt strange. Where did this... being come from? Why was he here? Was it hostile? Did it have malicious intent? She decided to ask it.

The being interrupted her questioning. “I am not malicious. I don’t have hostility toward you. I am here to assist you.”

How did it know what I was thinking? she thought.

“Speech is the beginning of how we communicate. We not only listen, we sense communication. We interpret thoughts, and read physical motion. That is how I know what you were thinking. I’ve studied your culture, and language. I will explain everything,” the being said. “You should answer the door.”

Jayde was miffed. “Why would I answer...”

Just then, she heard a knock at the door. The being said, “That’s Alexi Doshmononov. I believe I need to explain myself to him, as well.”

Jayde walked to the door with her eyes glued to the being. She got to the door. “Who is it?”

“It is Alexi!” Doshmononov vociferated through the door.

Jayde opened the door. “Before you lose it, Alexi, I have a guest you need to see.”

“Privet Alexi Doshmononov.” the being spoke to Alexi. “Ne volnuyts’ YA znayu Russkiy (Don’t worry, I know Russian).”

Alexi looked at the being, and then to Jayde. Jayde had a strange smile on her face.

“This thing is passive, Alexi. It knows who you are,” she said.

Alexi recognized it. “The mermaid!”

That’s not a mermaid, Alexi. I won the argument. It’s a...” she had no clue.

“I must apologize, Jayde. Our people know of us without us addressing one another. My name is Cheauflux. I am of the Cheasu race, from a planet called Valan-Cheanus,” it said.

Jayde stepped aside to let Alexi in. Alexi walked in, slowly. His expression was as strange as Jayde’s was, initially.

“Vy znayette Russkiy? (You know Russian)?” Alexi asked.

“Ya mogu govorit’ ne vsekh yazkakh (I can speak all languages).” Cheauflux said. “No tak kak vy znayete Angliyskiy davayte sdelayem eto legche na Jayde. (But since you know English, let’s make it easier on Jayde).”

Jayde looked at the two. “I have no idea what you two were talking about, but this is kinda trippy, huh?”

“I guess the doctor was right,” Alexi said.

“Yes and no,” Cheauflux interrupted. “We are from light years away, and we sent the Chauzek, the beings that destroyed your reef, after your evolutionary level event happened. If we didn’t send them in a vessel with a protective barrier, everything that exists here would be silicone based instead of carbon based.”

“So, since some lower, carbon based life forms survived, our planet would be a hodgepodge of species,” Jayde speculated.

“If the Chauzek were not dormant at that time, the lower life forms that survived would have become extinct. The Chauzek are dominant species,” Cheauflux said.

“Wait a minute!” It was Alexi’s turn to interrupt. Whatever those things are; they were here before we even existed?”

“Yes, they were, technically, here first,” Cheauflux explained.

“I don’t care who the evolutionary landlord is, how do you stop them from destroying my reef? Jayde asked.

“The Chauzek are relentless. They clean everything. The only problem is they don’t discern. They can’t separate the valuable from the useless, so they destroy everything,” Cheauflux said.

“Nice book report, Cheauflux. I don’t need to know their intentions, or idiosyncrasies. I just need to know how to destroy them,” Jayde said.

“The Cheasu don’t destroy. We relocate our problems, and with your primitive weaponry, you couldn’t destroy the Chauzek without destroying yourselves,” Cheauflux said.

“Then how are you going to… assist us?” she asked.

“What our Cheacorin, our supreme leader knew, from that time didn’t fully understand, was that the Chauzek can adapt to any environment. They don’t need to be on a life sustainable planet. We can relocate them to another planet in your system,” Cheauflux said.

“We aren’t advanced enough to have manned flight to anywhere in our system. We haven’t even gone next door to Mars!” Jayde exclaimed.

“Who said we need manned travel? As I said before, the Chauzek adapt to anything. The only problem I need to help you with is creating a stasis field, so the Chauzek don’t eat their craft, and to make a craft larger than the probes you’ve made for exploration. It has to be the size of a transport,” Cheauflux said.

“Even if the higher-ups believed you, this planet does not have the money to even make what you are suggesting,” Alexi said.

“When the higher-ups see how this planet will be inevitably destroyed, I believe your archaic practice of monetary exchange will be inert against this threat,” Cheauflux assured him.

Jayde was curious. “Why are you helping us?”

“The Cheasu have been through a bloody war, many millennial cycles ago, so we evolved into a non-violent race. That’s the reason we don’t kill. We didn’t destroy the Chauzek; we relocated them to another planet before it had sentient beings. We thought you’d be advanced enough by now, to relocate the Chauzek yourselves, or leave this planet. Since our calculations were imperceptibly askew, I’m here to kick-start you, so to say,” Cheauflux said.

“Well, you need to tell Doc what we’re dealing with,” Jayde said.

“Yes he is another important entity in this synopsis,” Cheauflux said. “I will meet you in the laboratory.”

“We’re on our way now. You can follow us,” she said.

“I prefer tele-migrating, phasing. Being encased in any enclosed area when I can move freely is a bit disconcerting,” Cheauflux said.

“I understand your apprehension. Just don’t beat us there. I want to prepare Doc,” She said.

“I will remain inconspicuous until you introduce me,” it acknowledged. Then it dropped into the floor.

They walked towards the mess hall. As they walked with swiftness, she looked at Alexi.

“Of course he’s going to beat us there. The fastest way between two points is a straight line. We have to navigate to the mess hall, reach the supply room template, and go down the elevator. He can phase through rocks, and dirt, moving directly to the lab, instantly. He wins every time.”

“And you are not ‘weirded out’, being confronted by an alien?” Alexi asked.

“At first I was, but when he started explaining everything, and answering my questions, he made sense. A scientist lives on analytical deduction. My trait trumped my freak out. Before, I couldn’t prove it. With Cheauflux, I could,” she said.

“Yes, but with all that explanation, it does not stop the fact that he is an alien!” Alexi clarified.

“When you see all the stars at night, and all we can see is a mere sliver of a fraction of all the stars in the universe we know, you don’t think there’s more life out there older than us? Think about going back in ancient Egyptian times with a cellphone. You would be worshiped as a god. When you think about things analytically, meeting an alien isn’t all that strange,” she explained.

Alexi began thinking of things he knew. If he could touch it and prove it, it must be fact. Facts are what he has learned from. The strange part is, he could touch, and prove Cheauflux’s existence. The situation weirded him out anyway.

They made it to the covert elevator, did the secret protocol, and entered. They began to descend. After a few minutes, the door slid open, and the two stepped into the laboratory.

“Jayde, lovely to ze jou and jour bodyguard!” Chalet called out from the middle of the room.

“You really have to see this, Doc. It will answer all you questions,” she said.

Chalet’s eyes got wider. “Vat do jou ’ave up jour zleve?” he asked her, with excitement.

“First, your mind has to be open,” she said.

“Of course I vill keep an open mind. I am a razional zientist,” he assured her.

“I was thinking of how to prepare you for what is about to happen. Then I realized, there is no preparation for this, so, Doc, meet Cheauflux. An alien from Valan-Cheanus,” she said.

Cheauflux revealed itself. “Bonjour Docteur Chalet.”

Deveauxn stepped back. “Sacre bleu!”

“Ne soyez pas alarmé, Docteur. Je peux parler votre langue maternelle (Do not be alarmed Doctor. I can speak your native language).” Cheauflux explained.

“Jayde, vat ze ’ell iz dis... ding?” Chalet pointed to Cheauflux, and asked her.

“I told you Doc, no preparation. If you weren’t cerebral, I wouldn’t have showed it to you,” she said.

Chalet looked to Alexi for some sort of assistance.

Alexi shrugged his shoulders, and said, “How can I help you, when we are in the same boat, Doctor?”

“Fight through your initial shock, and be deductive, Doc. Once you began to think about the situation, it’s not as ludicrous as it seems.” Jayde tried to bring his heart rate down.

He was going to be deductive. He asked his question in French. “Que détruit le Récif? (What is destroying the Reef?).”

“Il est les espèces étrangères appelées le Chauzek. Parlons en Anglais. (It’s an alien species called the Chauzek. Let’s speak in English).” Cheauflux said.

“Vat iz zees Chauzek?” Chalet asked.

“A hungry, communal, relentless creature, with black matter for a digestive system,” Cheauflux said.

“Vhere deed zey come vrom?” Chalet asked.

“These two already know the preliminaries. Let’s speak in private, so I can catch you up. Since it will only be us, we can speak in French,” Cheauflux said.

“Oui, ve can go een ’ere, and jou can geev me ze dirt,” Chalet began walking to a research room to converse, and Cheauflux followed.

The conversation wore on, for a while. Jayde knew Chalet didn’t want any of his questions about the universe squandered. It was like he was the student, and Cheauflux was the professor.

After an hour, they walked out of the research room.

“Zo, deez dingz are like voratiouz black ’olez?” Chalet asked, as they left the room.

“They are relentless, mindless demons,” Cheauflux said. “Holes that cannot be filled.”

Chalet walked to Jayde. “Do jou ’ave clout in ze Air Vorce?”

“I know a four star who has a thing for dolphins,” she said.

“Jou must get ’eem on ze ’orn, und tell ’eem to talk to ze prezident about zpace travel,” Chalet said.

“Sure, let me see if I can switch my conference call with God for Thursday.” Her comment dripped with sarcasm. “Are you crazy, Doc!? I don’t have that much clout!”

“The level of your importance should become irrelevant when they hear what you have to say,” Cheauflux told her.

“I don’t know how it is on your planet, but skepticism is king down here, and credibility is kind of important also!” she exclaimed to Cheauflux.

“The main complication of their knowledge of the Chauzek is their coversion. You won’t be able to prove what they can’t see,” Cheauflux said, with foreboding.

“You just told me, my informing the president is an impossibility.” Jayde said.

“You forget, I am Cheasu, far more advanced than a human. Humans will be treated as our chealings, what you call children, are treated,” Cheauflux said.

“What are you talking about?” Alexi asked.

“We have an old chealing trick we use to guide them to obedience,” Cheauflux explained. “We display imminent danger to them, to get them to listen.”

“So, rearing children is universal,” Jayde speculated.

“The chealings are constituted as violent Cheasu. We have to curry them to benevolence,” Cheauflux confirmed.

“What are you going to do?” Jayde asked.

“Humans are like our chealings, impregnated with violence. I will show them a threat they will have to respond to,” Cheauflux said.

“You’re going to spook the president!” Jayde realized.

“I believe misdirection is necessary to get them to respond. Our chealings become compliant immediately,” Cheauflux said.

“Vell, ’ow long do jou need to prepare?” Chalet asked.

“If you are prepared to execute, I am,” Cheauflux said.

What did it have up its alien sleeve? They all wanted to see what was going to be revealed.