Free Sequence by Adam Moon

spot between them, midair.
    Chris looked at Samda to see if any of this surprised her, but she seemed to be taking it all in stride.
    Then the hoses started to spew out fine dust-like particles that hovered and coalesced into a sphere several feet above the floor. The sphere started to shrink , and as it did it became more solid. It finally shrunk into a compact circular pill about two inches around. It looked like a light blue golf ball.
    The hoses retracted quickly and Number Four reached out and grabbed the ball out of the air as it hung there.
    He handed it to Samda and told her to eat the whole thing.
    She didn’t even hesitate. She must’ve been famished to not ask any questions.
    Number Four said, “Go take a seat on the floor. The nutrients may come as a shock to your system.”
    “Why’s that?”
    “It’s surprising how the machine identifies nutrients that a body would benefit from, even those not native to their world. I don’t know how your body might react, but trust me, it’s not dangerous. When your body adjusts, you’ll feel more alive than you ever have.”
    Samda buckled over as if on cue and said, “Yeah, I think I feel it working.” She shuffled over to the wall and sat down, still clutching her gut with both hands.
    Number Four said to Chris, “I brought you here so you can keep her company and make sure she doesn’t have any allergic reactions. If she starts to act funny, just call for me and I’ll come right back.”
    “Where are you going?”
    “I have a ship to fly and a mission to run.”
    “When will I know if she’s in the clear?”
    “When she can walk again. I’ll see you soon. You know your way back, right?”
    “Yeah, we’ll find you.”
    With that, Number Four left the room.

Suspicions
     
    Chris sat down beside Samda and watched her progress. She didn’t seem sick, maybe a little achy, but otherwise okay.
    He looked around the room, trying to find anything interesting to occupy him, but the room was mostly bare.
    Samda sat straighter and said, “I think it’s assimilated. I’m feeling much better.”
    “Good. I’m glad. I don’t know how to resuscitate an alien.”
    “You’re the alien, Earthman.”
    Chris smirked. More somberly he said, “Why do you think the Grays destroyed your planet?”
    She sighed. “I wish I knew. I wish I could’ve done something to stop them. I was on a research mission in orbit around our sun when the distress call came through. I was ordered to stay put because my ship wasn’t designed for full scale combat. That order saved my life, but it’s also caused me sleepless nights. I keep thinking I could have done something to help.”
    “I don’t think you would’ ve made a difference. I’m not saying that to be mean, just that the Grays are some pretty severe bad asses and I doubt a single research vessel would have made them tuck tail and run.”
    “I know that but it doesn’t alleviate my doubts.”
    “I wonder why that escaped Gray didn’t kill me when it had the chance.”
    “I don’t know , but you should count your blessings.”
    Chris continued, “The other Gray said that he was surprised that humanity was chosen to be a part of this experiment. And humanity has yet to be destroyed by them. This is a stretch but I’ve been thinking about it. Maybe the Grays are only eliminating the creatures that this mission deems useful.”
    “But why would they care?”
    “Maybe because they don’t think we should be designing God, so they’re taking away the ingredients.”
    “But why not just destroy this ship? That would solve the problem much more quickly than picking out a species that might be included in the experiment, and destroying every single one of them.”
    “They’ve tried to destroy this ship and it didn’t work. Maybe they can’t. I don’t know.”
    Samda sat up straighter and put her immense back against the wall. “Why would they care if these people create God anyway?”
    Chris looked her in the