Beyond Sol Bk. 01 Pt. 01

I took a step towards my white-haired captor, intending to get answers, but Shara got to him before me. She placed a hand on his forehead, and I saw Marcus's eyes turn as white as her own. The effect only lasted a few seconds before she released him, and Marcus slumped to the ground, unconscious.

"What did you just do?" I asked.

"Read his mind," Shara replied, rummaging through his pockets.

"I thought you said you couldn't do that," I asked.

"Only surface thoughts and I can't do it without injuring the target," she replied. "I would never do that to you, Jason."

She pulled a key card from Marcus' pocket and shot me a look of triumph. I was still stunned at how gorgeous this woman was and how real she looked. I had known she was an alien, but seeing her in the flesh was making it difficult for me to keep my mind on the task at hand.

She was breathtaking.

"You must have many questions, and I will answer them for you, Jason. But for now, we must go," Shara said.

"Okay. Where do we go?" I asked the gorgeous alien woman.

"To my ship. Follow me; I know the way," she said with a straight face.

I stifled a laugh at her words, knowing she couldn't very well understand why I found them funny. She might think I was laughing at her and get upset or mad with me.

I followed Shara back to Cellblock A's entrance and found it odd that there were no guards on duty. The alarm had ceased a few minutes earlier, but the red lights were still flashing in the corridors.

"I don't like this," I said as I swiped my card to open the security door. It beeped and flashed a green light. My card worked to get me out of here, but not to gain access.

"What do you mean?" Shara asked. "You don't like to escape?"

"No, not that," I said. "There are no guards anywhere. The alarm went off, and I barely saw any."

I motioned to the corridors surrounding us. We were the only people walking the passageways of the facility. A facility I'd seen dozens of men in earlier, before the alarms.

"Many men came to my cell before you," Shara said. "They were dealt with."

"How many did you take out?" I asked.

"I counted twenty-seven before you arrived," Shara said casually before scanning an adjacent hallway.

"Twenty-seven!?" I gasped. "How?!"

"I am a very skilled warrior on my planet, Jason," she said with a hint of mirth.

"What planet are you from?" I asked.

"We can talk about that later. For now, I need you to focus," Shara said.

I nodded and kept my mouth shut. I was excited to talk with Shara and find out what her home-world was like. But there was the pressing issue of getting the fuck out of dodge before we could relax and get to know one another.

We walked for another five minutes, stopping three times to take cover as a squad of armed soldiers rushed by on their way somewhere. The guards weren't heading in the direction of either cellblock. None of them paid any attention to their surroundings, leaving Shara and I to go about our business. It was like they didn't even know we'd gotten out.

"Do you still have your mask?" Shara asked when we stopped.

"Yeah, why?" I asked, fishing it out of my pocket.

"Put it on. There are guards ahead. It will allow you to get closer," she motioned to the corridor we had stopped beside.

I pulled the balaclava from my pocket and tugged it on. The material was drenched with sweat and smelled horrible, but it was preferable to getting shot in the face. Once in place, I peeked around the corner to see what lay ahead. Four guards stood by a large metal double door, wide enough to drive a small car through. They had automatic rifles and body armour instead of the pistols and chest rigs the other men wore. If video games had taught me anything, my lowly guard's uniform wouldn't grant me access to what was behind those doors, and I wouldn't be able to talk my way past them. But I did have another idea.

"Can you take them out?" I asked.

"Yes. But they are too far away and would injure me badly before I reached them. I am fast, but their weapons are more dangerous," Shara explained.

"Okay. I will send some of them your way," I said.

"What are you going to do?" Shara asked with a touch of worry crossing her beautiful grey-skinned face.

"Do you trust me?" I asked.

"With my life," she said without hesitation.

"Then let me do my thing," I winked.

I had no idea where this surge of confidence was coming from, but I enjoyed the feeling. Having a gorgeous alien woman to rescue and protect would make any man feel confident. And extremely lucky.

I pulled the spare pistol from the holster on my back and handed it to Shara. She studied the weapon for a moment before sliding the magazine out, checking the slide, and loading the gun like she'd done it a hundred times before.

"Ready?"

"Yes."

I checked my pistol and holstered it before taking a deep breath, then ran around the corner and feigned catching my breath as I slumped against the wall. The guards by the door immediately raised their weapons, and I saw four small red dots appear on my chest.

"Prisoner has escaped," I blurted out. "It's killed dozens and is coming this way."

I dropped to one knee and clutched my side. I didn't have to act too hard to convince the men I was winded and exhausted. I hadn't been in great shape before being locked up. Although I had recovered faster than I thought possible in the last few weeks, I was still unhealthily thin and out of shape.

The guards glanced at each other, then two of them broke off and moved slowly down the hallway towards where Shara waited. I glanced at the other two soldiers and saw they had trained their weapons on the opening to the corridor and had all but forgotten me. I needed to distract them so that Shara had a better chance at taking the first two out with minimal risk.

"What's the alarm for?" I asked.

"That stupid raid," the soldier on the left said.

"Raid?" I asked.

"Yeah. Some assholes breached the perimeter; all hands are topside to deal with crowd control. If it were up to me, I'd just shoot them all," the soldier on the right said.

I laughed a little at the situation. The Area 51 raid had been a social media craze that turned into a lot of memes. A large portion of my friends had jumped on the bandwagon for the fun of it. However, none of us had even considered going. The idea of a bunch of kids running like their favourite anime characters past armed guards was amusing, but we just lived too far away. As it turns out, I didn't need to go to the raid. They'd brought me to Area 51 against my will. At least I knew where we were, even though I didn't know how the hell they had gotten Shara, her ship, and me across the ocean all the way from down-under. Or why they even did it. Surely there were closer black-site facilities they could have stashed us in.

"They actually went through with it?" I asked.

"Yep. I didn't think they would either. We planned for it, but it seemed like a stupid exercise, and I don't think many of the men took it seriously," the soldier on the right replied.

That must have been why the facility was empty. Every soldier I'd crossed paths with earlier was probably trying to stop anyone from entering the base, leaving their posts all but abandoned. If Marcus was in command, he most likely spared a few dozen guards to keep a close watch on Shara. And if these four heavily armed soldiers were left on duty, that meant whatever was behind this door was equally important.

A cry of pain from behind told me the men had reached Shara. I looked over my shoulder to see one of the black-clad guards hurled through the air, crashing into the corner of the wall. Three gunshots sounded, and I immediately started to panic. Had she been shot? My heart slammed against my ribcage in anticipation. Then I saw the beautiful alien woman sprint around the corner.

The two remaining soldiers raised their weapons to fire, but I was ready and waiting. I let off three shots into the left-most guard, hitting him in the leg. He dropped his rifle as he collapsed to one knee with a cry of pain, drawing his friend's attention for just a second, but it was all Shara needed to put half a dozen rounds into his chest. The pistols we carried were only low calibre, and these men were wearing body armour, but the shots to his chest were enough to stun him, allowing time for me to finish him off. My weapon kicked again as I put a round through the side of his head.

Shara sprinted the distance between us just in time to catch the remaining soldier before he could aim his rifle. Somehow, he regained his weapon and had pushed through the pain of three gunshot wounds in his leg. But Shara's long leg lashed out and kicked the gun out of his hands before he could fire off a single shot. She followed it up with a roundhouse kick to the face, and the guard went limp.

"Holy shit, you're fast," I said.

"Or maybe your people are just slow?" she smirked.

"Either way, I'm glad you're on my side," I chuckled.

I grabbed one of the discarded rifles and transferred a few extra magazines from the unconscious man's plate carrier into my rig, then ejected the half-used magazine from my pistol and replaced it with a fresh one from his supply. I spent a few seconds sifting through his equipment for anything I might need and came out with four more grenades; two smoke and two flashbangs. Unfortunately, they didn't carry any of the explosive kind, but they probably wanted to avoid any collateral damage to the facility.

"We must go," Shara said impatiently.

"Don't you want some weapons?" I asked, still crouched over the unconscious body.

"No. I have weapons on my ship," she said.

"Ship?"

"Yes. How did you think we were going to escape?" Shara replied.

The prospect of getting to ride on a real alien spaceship sent jitters through my body, and it was all I could do to restrain my excitement at the opportunity.

"Well, I'm ready," I said, settling the strap from my new rifle over my shoulder.

I'd pulled a key card from the unconscious guard's pocket and fist-pumped when the scanner beeped, displaying a green light. The doors unlocked and started to swing inward slowly. Once it was opened wide enough for us to squeeze through, I stepped in before Shara could. I had the bigger gun, and I wanted to make sure I put myself between the beautiful woman and anyone who might do her harm. It was a feeling I was un-used to, and I didn't know where it came from, but I knew I'd give my life to help her escape. This was my world, and my people had taken her.

We made our way down a long corridor absent of guards, cameras, or security. There was a second set of doors at the end, and the key card allowed us access to those. The doors opened into a large, high ceiling building. Metal beams crisscross high above my head with powerful lights hanging at spaced-out intervals. It was a hangar for sure, but not like any I'd ever seen. Computer terminals scattered around the room, men and women in white coats stood in groups or by themselves as they typed away or went over the information displayed on the screens. None of them noticed the door opening or the two newcomers joining them, and I could understand why. In the middle of the room sat the familiar shape of the spaceship I remembered. It was night when I first saw it, and it had looked impressive enough when illuminated by my headlights. But now I could see exactly how amazing it looked.

I wondered how they had moved it in secret since it was so large, but that wasn't important right now. The armed guard closest to the door, turning his attention to me, was far more critical. Before anyone could raise the alarm, I brought my newly acquired rifle to my shoulder, aimed, and fired. I shot off a burst at the closest guard and hit him square in the chest. I surprised myself with my accuracy since I'd never fired a gun in my life before today. but I'd surprised myself with what I could do a few times already since meeting Shara.

The soldier went down to the larger calibre round, but I wasn't sure if he was dead or not. I swung the barrel of my weapon to the next target and let off another burst. I hadn't compensated after the initial recoil, which worked in my favour. My first shot went right through his nasal cavity, painting the terminals behind him with a gruesome spray of blood, followed by a shower of sparks as my bullets ripped through the machines.

"Two down," I muttered.

I hadn't counted how many men were in the hangar, but two less was better than nothing. I darted to the right as a spray of bullets filled the air. Shara and I took cover behind a stack of crates that thrummed with the pelting of bullets as the soldiers fired on our position.

"We need to get to the ship!" Shara shouted over the gunfire.

"No shit!" I yelled back.

I popped up from my makeshift cover, unloaded in my enemies' direction, keeping my finger on the trigger until the rifle clicked, telling me I was out of ammo. I dropped back down just as another spray of bullets punched the wall behind where I had been standing.

"How do you propose we do that?" I yelled over the gunfire as I ejected the spent magazine and replaced it with a fresh one. I hadn't even thought about the task, and I had performed it flawlessly.

"These," she prodded my chest with a finger, but then I realised she meant the grenades.

I pulled out all four canisters and placed them on the ground between us. I handed Shara one flash grenade before taking the other for myself.

"We throw this, then this," I held up the flashbang, then indicated to the smoke grenade.

"Got it," she replied.

I pulled the pin on the flashbang and held the lever down. I showed Shara, and she nodded before mimicking me. I waited for a pause in the gunfire before poking my head out, lobbing the flash grenade in an overhand throw. Shara followed my example, and we ducked back behind the boxes to avoid taking a brass lobotomy. I immediately snatched up one of the smoke grenades and pulled the pin. I waited for the bang of the flashbangs before hurling the smoke canister. Shara had followed my instructions perfectly, and I counted to five before taking another look. The area between the armed guards and us was filling with smoke, but I still saw movement on the other side. The ship was still visible to our right, so I motioned for Shara to move.

We moved between cover when we could and approached the rear of the ship in only a minute. The soldiers hadn't fired a shot since the flashbangs went off, so I assumed they were repositioning themselves to anticipate our movements. I was no military tactician, but that's what I'd do.

We took shelter behind some computer terminals that wouldn't hold up well to any sustained gunfire, but at least Shara and I were concealed. I poked my head out and saw the ship's rear was only ten metres away. But the guards were forming up under the vessel.

"Fuck," I muttered. "We can't get past them."

"Yes, we can," Shara said.

I looked over at the beautiful woman to see her grinning as she knelt beside me. I hadn't even noticed her rummaging through one of the nearby boxes. She held a cylindrical device about fifteen centimetres long that looked to be cast from a solid piece of dull, non-reflective metal. Shara slipped it over her hand, and it tightened around her forearm instantly. A screen on the device lit up, and I realised it was a computer of some kind. Shara tapped a few options on the screen, a screen with symbols I didn't understand, and I heard the hiss and mechanical whirling of the boarding ramp descending.

"One more thing," she said with a grin. "That should clear our path."

I glanced towards the ship and saw thrusters across the bottom of the vessel fire up. They were far smaller than the monstrous engines on the rear, but they still fired up with an orange burst of energy, instantly vaporizing three armed soldiers. The rest shouted as they scrambled out from the underbelly of the ship.

"Let's go," Shara shouted before vaulting over the computer terminal.

I could have tried a similar move, but probably would have fallen flat on my face. Instead, I ran around the terminals and followed my companion. The armed soldiers were too busy avoiding getting fried by the ship's thrusters to bother trying to stop us, and we made it to the boarding ramp just as it fully extended. Then I noticed that the ramp didn't reach the ground because the ship was propped up on a metal frame.

Shara jumped the two metres with ease, landing on the ramp with the grace of a master gymnast. But I knew I wouldn't make it. I'd need to find a ladder or something, but there wasn't time. The guards would recover quickly, and then they'd come for me.

"Hold on!" Shara shouted as she darted into the ship.

I flipped over a nearby metal table and took cover behind it. I doubt it would hold up too much gunfire, but I'd always wanted to do that. I waited for a few agonizing minutes as black-uniformed assholes pinned me behind the surprisingly sturdy table. Men were moving around either side of the ship—too afraid to walk under it—and I knew I'd be surrounded in under a minute. So, I did the only thing I could. I started shooting.

I didn't even aim for people, only the direction I saw movement. I let my rifle sing as I emptied magazine after magazine in hopes of keeping them back long enough to let Shara do what she needed to. I was down to my last magazine when the ship began to move.

At first, I thought she was about to leave me, but then the frames holding the ship up started to bend and creak before one snapped violently. The metal beams split, and I saw one of the sharper pieces cut a black-clad soldier in two as he charged my position. The rest of the metal frame buckled as the ship lowered itself until the claw-like landing gear touched the hangar floor's smooth metal surface.

"Come on!" Shara shouted from the boarding ramp.

Bolts of blue energy flashed overhead, and I looked up to see Shara holding a rifle that pulsed with energy. She aimed her weapon with incredible accuracy, and I saw three more soldiers disintegrate as the blasts of energy slammed into them, leaving only a pile of ash in their stead.

I darted out from the turned-over table and sprinted to the boarding ramp as Shara covered me with a hail of blue bolts. I hit the ramp at a sprint, and Shara slammed the palm of her hand onto a metal disc. The ramp started ascending immediately, and I pushed further into the belly of the ship before collapsing to my knees, panting heavily.

"Come on," Shara lifted me to my feet and helped me walk further into the ship.

I could hear the pattering of bullets on the hull and was starting to worry they might do some damage.

"Can they get in?" I asked.

"If they could have gotten in by now, they would have," Shara replied.

We entered a small cockpit with three chairs. One was facing the front of the ship and looked out the broad windows while the other two sat to either side. Each chair had its own set of instruments arranged before them, but I had no idea what any of them did.

"Here, sit down. I'll take care of the rest," Shara helped me get into the leftmost chair, then took the centre for herself.

She strapped herself into the chair, and I watched her fingers dance across the console before taking the yoke in her right hand. I copied her movements and strapped myself in just in time as the ship lurched upwards.

"Hang on," she said.

"Hang on to what?" I asked.

She ignored me as she focused on positioning the front of the ship towards the hangar doors. Shara gripped what I thought was the throttle, and then we were shooting forward. The G-forces of the acceleration pushed hard on my shoulders, but I felt like it should be more intense for the sudden burst of speed. I gripped the sides of my chair so hard my fingers hurt as she slammed into; and through; the wide hangar doors with a flash of blue-grey energy that I guessed was an energy shield. The ship shuddered a little, but then we were shooting through a wide tunnel.