Page 7 of Protected By the Alien Warmachine

At least I got him off Paulo’s back.That tiny victory would have to do. Sighing, I turned to look for the approaching craft. It wasn’t visible yet, but it would be soon.

“I don’t have time for this,” I said. “We need to find out who’s coming and what they want.”

A small spot appeared on the horizon, growing swiftly as it approached. They were coming in low, hard, and fast, and that wasn’t normal at all. Nor legal, given how close we were to Ancient ruins.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” someone said to mutters of agreement.

The ship turned its thrusters forward as it approached, killing its speed at the cost of kicking up a cloud of sand at us. We all had enough experience with sandstorms to cover our faces, but that was, at the very best, rude. I looked around, checking that the rest of the expedition members were okay.

While I was busy with that, Marcus marched forward, and he was halfway to the ship before I noticed. I wasn’t about to run after him, so I settled for glaring at his back so intensely he should have caught fire.Fine, if it means that much to you, you can be the one who greets these idiots.

The black sand cloud kept me from getting a good look at the ship, but what I saw wasn’t reassuring. This wasn’t a transport ship like we’d arrived on. It looked military, with turrets under each wing and heavy thrusters. Worse, it had no identifying marks at all. No name, no serial number, nothing.

That didn’t seem right at all. Before I could say anything, the ship announced itself.

“Hello, folks. I’m Hector Rush, and I’m here to rescue you.” A man’s voice boomed from speakers mounted on the hull, loudenough to make everyone wince. “There’s a rough storm coming, and Taverner couldn’t get through to your comms, so they sent me to drag you all to safety.”

A hatch opened and a man in a hardsuit stepped out, waving to us. Again, that wasn’t right. Armored spacesuits had two uses—industrial work in a vacuum, and combat.

If Marcus noticed that, he ignored it. Shooting a see-I-told-you-so look at me over his shoulder, he straightened up and advanced in plain view. The speaker nodded to him and continued. “If you’d all gather right here in an orderly fashion, we’ll get everyone out in plenty of time.”

“Now, hang on a minute,” Marcus said, loud enough that Rush’s microphone picked him up as well. “You don’t understand the value of this find. We’ll need to secure the site before we go anywhere.”

Rush started to say something. True to form, Marcus spoke over him. “You’ve come a long way to give us this warning, and we appreciate it, but we don’t need any further assistance. We’re professionals, we’ve coped with harsh weather before, and here we have a shelter that’s stood up to local conditions for at leastten thousand years,and probably a lot longer. We’ll be fine.”

Which was the nicest thing he’d said about us in months. He might be an ass, but he wasn’t about to make us look bad in front of outsiders. If for no other reason than his reputation would suffer by association.

“Friend, I have my orders.” The false warmth in Rush’s voice revealed his annoyance. “We’re all going to leave, and we’ll bring you straight back once the weather’s better. If everyone would just get over here, we’ll?—”

“Oh, no,” Marcus interrupted. “You aren’t in charge here, Mr. Rush. Do you even know who I am?”

I snorted. He wasn’t some celebrity scientist, the odds of a random spaceship captain having so much as heard his namewere roughly zero. Rush stood still as a statue, and I guessed he wasn’t used to being told ‘no’ by anyone, let alone an anonymous academic with delusions of grandeur.

“I’d better go smooth this out,” I said to no one in particular. I’d made it two steps before Rush spoke again.

“It’sColonelRush, Doctor, and I don’t give a shit who you are.” Now his voice was a cold hiss, and I drew a breath to say something, anything, to defuse the situation.

I never got the chance to speak. With a smooth, practiced motion, the colonel drew a pistol and raised it. With a loudsnap-CRACK, the stun beam’s charge hit Marcus Waterman right between the eyes and dropped him like a sack of potatoes.

Everyone froze. My heart thumped, my fingers trembled, and as hard as I tried, I couldn’t move or even speak.

Rush turned toward us, pistol still raised. “So much for doing this neatly,” he said. Behind him, the ship’s turrets came to life, tracking in on us. More soldiers ran out of the hold, stunners raised and ready to fire.

That was enough to break my paralysis. Grabbing Paulo by the shoulder, I shoved him ahead of me across the black sands. “Run!” I shouted back, though no one needed me to tell them. Behind me, stunners cracked, and bodies hit the ground. Unconscious bodies, I hoped. Shooting someone with a military stun-gun wasn’t safe.

I didn’t turn back to check. Keeping my head down and sprinting between the ruined buildings, I did my best to put the heavy stone between me and the weapons. A tingling numbness made me stumble, but I recovered and kept going—stunners are effective, but short-ranged, and I must have caught the edge of a charge. For a heady moment, I thought I’d escaped.

Then the ship’s laser turrets stuttered into life, blasting the sand behind me into fused glass. Not wanting to find out what lasers designed for space combat would do to a human body, Idove for the tomb entrance, tackling Paulo and tumbling down just in time to dodge a burst that would have vaporized us both. Instead, it hit the black stone above us. The Ancient stonework held up better than I expected—rather than burying us alive, it came down in a partial collapse that blocked the opening behind us. Paulo grabbed my arm, pulled me to my feet, and we ran into the maze of tunnels.

We took turns at random, risking Ancient deathtraps to put more distance between us and any pursuers. Luckily, we triggered nothing before we exhausted ourselves and had to slow to a walk, panting. With no sounds of pursuit, I dared hope we were safe for a while.

No sooner had the thought entered my mind than something cracked off the dark, marbled wall inches from my head. I yelped and jumped back, tangling with Paulo and taking us both down in a tumble. Flailing around, I shone my flashlight in all directions until it caught a figure crouched in the next junction.

“What the actual fuck, Talia?” Juliette’s shout held panic and confusion, and her face was white as snow. In her shaking hands she held heavy tools, one raised to throw. My arm steadied, and the flashlight beam caught one of the route markers we’d placed at junctions to guide people to the explored and safe areas.

I wanted to scream. For once, I’d tried to get lost, and my subconscious navigator had brought me right back to the dig.

Juliette wasn’t waiting for me to catch my breath. “What’s happening up there? I heard gunfire, then the comms shut down.”

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