Starsnatcher - Trapped In An Alien World [COMPLETE]

Part 3 - Chapter 7.1 - Cipher

The Firefly led our way to Starsnatcher. Layla's ship flew just at the edge of our telescope's line of sight. This meant that any messages she had for us reached us with a delay of less than a second.

Tesla played another one of Layla's transmissions. "I have good news, fellas. Mustafa just stopped an infected alien starship that was heading to Earth. Not sure if you walking squid guys could have done this on your own."

I wonder why Layla told us this. Casually or to win me over to Ay's side? I wasn't so sure if the Seizers would have done the same in his place. The only thing she achieved was disturbing me. I was disturbed by the fact that Ay had figured out our telepathic language with so little information. Maybe his mind-reader helped?

"I've got a little video clip for ya all," Layla continued. "There will be transmissions for the walking squids and audio for the hairless monkeys on your crew."

A projector attached to Tesla's panel created an Earth hologram over our table. Kira became curious and joined the rest of us. The hologram zoomed in to show Starsnatcher in orbit around the Southern Hemisphere.

"Before you ask, yes, you're seeing this right, he made his ship visible after he abducted you guys."

The hologram depicted stylized radio waves coming out of Starsnatcher, hacking the International Space Station. The ISS then transmitted a speech by Ay to the rest of Earth.

"He basically just told everyone the story he told me and Kira already about how he found the ship and what he wants to do now. People tried to shoot missiles at him, but, as you might imagine, they failed. Just wanted to let my fellow Earthlings know what our planet's doing at the moment. I'm sure they're gonna make movies about this."

So, everyone back home knows that they'll be assimilated and that they can do absolutely nothing against it.

The irony hurt. A few decades or years ago, we thought of ourselves as the apex of progress and evolution. We went to the moon, sequenced the human genome, and even found wormholes into foreign worlds. Then, in an instant, an alien horror revealed itself to us. It had been there all along, scheming on how to end all life in the universe as we know it and now, its plan had kicked into motion. The humans that remain on Earth can only sit back and watch.

During all these months that I've been writing my diary, you already knew your final destiny. You've been waiting for the assimilation with the knowledge that you couldn't stop it.

"Anyway," Layla continued, "the main thing I wanted to tell you is that we're flying to the fourth wormhole counterclockwise from the one we came from. Mustafa claims that this is where the Cipher will be, according to what he found out on the station. Better catch up with him soon. Bye!"

Kira looked at the air above the table where the hologram used to be.

"You know, I never tried to picture how all looked from the perspective of the people on Earth," I said.

"Me neither," she answered.

"At least we're gonna have one hell of an awesome story to tell once we're back."

I created a transmission focused on Crick. "The deal that you'll fly me back to Earth once this is over still stands, right?"

"Once this is over?" Helix repeated. "Once this is over? It'll never be over! So what if we win? Then we have to deal with the Plague and if he doesn't get us, that pandemic will. It already damaged our moon beyond the point of rebuilding. I'd honestly prefer to get assimilated."

"You officially lost your mind," Crick transmitted. "Virtual reality already shows sufficiently how shallow and meaningless our lives are with too much pleasure and too little obstacles. It is this meaninglessness that bred the terrorists. You should know this. This is why you are working with me."