Stars Gods Wolves by Dan Kirshtein (good books for 8th graders .TXT) 📗

outstretched hand, but he found Boomer preoccupied by what tripped him. He sat up, grumbled, and brushed gray snow off the ground in front of him. It revealed a piece of metal that seemed to go on for a while. Worse yet, it appeared to have been chewed down to about ankle height. Boomer looked on, baffled, as Mitch was the first to put the pieces together. “Is that—”

Gally looked down and kicked the snow around her feet, trying to ascertain what crunched below her. It was glass. What’s more, it was old test-tube glass that sat above a metal tiled floor. Her eyes widened.

“Is this what I think it is?” Mitch could be heard over the coms, uncertainty muddling his voice.

Boomer spun onto his knees and tried to get a closer look at the object that tripped him.

Howlette seemed to be encouraged. He dropped to his knees and scrounged around in the snow. Knowing Lee would be puzzled, he explained himself. “Flash drives, servers, notepads,” he muttered as he swept with his hands. “Anything.” Lee followed suit.

From inside the Atticus, Harper sat in his cockpit, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Oh, yeah, go ahead; we have enough fuel to make snow angels. Absolutely.” He gave a half-hearted glance to confirm that he hadn’t broadcast that to the whole team. Just above the button to do so, however, he thought he saw something outside the window.

Blinking, he leaned forward to confirm: he definitely saw something. A figure stood in the snow, about twenty feet from the others. Their visibility was minimal, but he had a better view. Harper nervously flicked the coms switch. “Uh, Captain, how many crewmembers are in the away team?” He spoke cautiously, staring at the humanoid figure that seemed content standing there in the distance, arms at its waist. It was tall and lanky, and it hardly looked dressed for the environment, though all he could see was shadow.

Nitro’s fingers twitched on his rifle’s body as he counted. “Seven total.” He briefly paused before the thought occurred to him. “Why?” he asked in a firm tone that just barely hid his nerves.

Harper began counting the others a second time; he was half-certain he was mistaking the figure for one of his team. “Josie’s three o’clock. Twenty feet out. Confirm that’s one of ours?”

Nitro’s upper lip drew up in one corner. He glanced in the lieutenant’s direction. “Josie, confirm?” He didn’t wait for her to respond; he walked toward her briskly. He couldn’t see her, but given the shepherd protocol, he knew where she would be.

“Negative,” he heard her respond. Her voice was slow and pensive. “Not one of mine.” The captain quickened his pace. “Hang on…” she trailed off for a moment before continuing. “…What is that?”

“Boomer, how fast can you get to her?” Nitro was nearly yelling at this point, still unable to get a visual on any of his team.

“I’m on my way!” Boomer sounded out of breath.

“All civilians back aboard the Atticus, right fucking now!” The captain was in full sprint, unable to see anything further than a few feet in front of him. “Harper, get ready to—” He was interrupted by Josie’s screaming.

It wasn’t a painful scream, more one of a surprise, and the sound of rifle fire erupted. Nitro could see her purple plasma flashing in the distance. He could finally make out Boomer’s figure next to him as they ran.

They arrived to see Josie standing, less than triumphantly, over a body that sizzled from fresh plasma bolts. Her breathing could still be heard over the coms. She turned to see the other two approaching, but her eyes did not leave her attacker for long. “I must’ve emptied half a clip.” She was exasperated. “He just kept coming.”

Nitro took a moment to run his eyes over his lieutenant, and found no signs of injury. They met eyes and he softly punched her on the shoulder. She nodded to him.

“What was it?” Gally asked. The three mercenaries stared at the carcass. “Guys?” she asked again.

“Hell if we know,” Boomer finally answered. “Never seen anything like this.”

“Fine, I’ll ask, but he’s gonna say no.” Harper was heard, farther from his microphone than usual before coming back to regular volume. “Doctor Collier is, uh, requesting we bring the body aboard for study.”

Josie shot Boomer a look that was, in turn, shot to the captain. Before Nitro could respond with an “Abso-fuckin-lutely not”, a response given usually only to his fellow mercenaries, he heard Howlette’s voice come over the coms. “I second that request.”

“Third!” Lee added enthusiastically.

Josie and Boomer watched Nitro tilt his head back; steam appeared around his helmet as he sighed hard. “Fine,” he finally grunted, exaggerating the first letter.

The entirety of the trip back, Nitro sat with his rifle in his arms, staring at their new, dead passenger. While he expressed concerns for their safety, he let the doctors examine it on the way back. It had an elongated bottom jaw, lined with teeth the size of fingers. Its oversized arms were hardly muscular, but carried hands twice the size of Humans’, with sharp, jagged nails at the end. Its black, beady eyes stared emptily at the roof of the ship. Blue skin hung off its body, tattered, as if it wasn’t quite finished being put together. Josie had made it clear that the hanging flesh wasn’t part of her handiwork.

While the other doctors were inquisitive, studious, Martin stood in the back, looking at the others and their newfound experiment. He felt distant from them, from everyone. And watching the other scientists huddle around the carcass like hyenas, he was glad for it. If there were two things he learned in his time as a prisoner, they were patience and self-control.

He ran a hand over his half-tanned face; he still wasn’t used to not having the beard. But his glassy blue eyes stared at the creature with purpose. As a general rule, science was easy to understand. It had rules, math,