The Gray (Chapter One)

“Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say.” The whisper echoed down the corridor of the academy. “What makes you say that?” The response caught the cadet off guard. He turned and met the gray eyes of a man dressed in a grey uniform. “I um, well.” The youth grew silent. “It’s okay, you’re not in trouble.” The man’s mouth smiled, but not his eyes. They only stared and studied.

“I heard it from my father, sir. He works at the power station nearby.”

“Hm, I may have to pay your father a visit young man.”

“Oh please don’t! He’d kill me if he…”

“He’s violent as well, yes I definitely will need to speak with him. Where isss he?”

Something felt off about the man. In fact, something felt off about everything. The youth looked down the corridor. Nothing but blackness down that way. Questions flared in his head. How had he gotten here? Who had he even been whispering to? The last thing he remembered was collapsing into his bed. Too tired to even take off his uniform. A window to his right caught his eye. At that angle he could only see the reflection of the hall in its glass, but blinding lights kept flashing through it. He moved to get closer, but found the man’s hand clamped firmly on his shoulder.

“Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space.” The cadet could feel the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He would not, could not turn to face the man in the grey uniform. He knew it wasn’t a man.

“Nobody can hear a ssscream in the quiet of sssomeone’s mind.”

He could sense things shift around him. It felt like sinking into a warm bath. Everything in him wanted to conform to his surroundings, to give into the soothing and easing thoughts flooding his mind. Yet he kept his eyes on that one window and willed himself to keep looking, to keep his concentration.

“Honey,” the voice of his mother came from the direction the grey man had been moments before, the firm grip replaced with a gentle touch. “I’m worried about your father. Do you know where he could be?”

The young man took a deep breath. He would have one shot. One chance to get this right. He broke away from the creature’s hand, screams and hisses erupting as he did. His feet pounded towards the window, his hand stretched out to press against the glass. He hit the crystal clear pane with the full force of his body and saw cracks begin to form. He glanced through it. Blasts of concentrated light flew across the central hall of the academy. Dozens lay dead, with many more students pressed against the edges of room, weapons in hand. A single person was in front of the glass pane, shouting for him to wake up. My eyes. I’m looking through my own eyes. And then, like a curtain being drawn, darkness overtook the window in front of him.

Cold icy fingers dug into his back. He wanted to scream, to yell out in agony. But he refused to give the Grayish that satisfaction. The hands turned the young man until he was face-to-face with the creature. “A quick and clever lad thisss one isss.” The being opened its mouth revealing long rows of sharp teeth. Its eyes sunk deeper and its face grew longer.

“To bad, young one, your death could have been painlessss.”

“Davis.”

“What?”

“My name is Davis.”

“I look forward to devouring your mind, Davisss.”

“Yeah, about that.” Davis kicked out behind him, shattering the blackened window. More hisses tore from the creature’s pale lips as light poured out from the opening. The hands let go of Davis’s back and he dropped to the floor. In one swift motion he scooped up a shard of the glass and threw himself toward the creature. The sharp edge pierced the roof of the being’s mouth. Its gray eyes widened. “I think I’ll keep my mind for now.”

Davis felt his entire body jolt. His heart pounded in his ears, and his breathing came to him in gasps. He tried to take account of his surroundings. Tables were turned over. Bodies and charred lines scattered all over the hall revealed the recent fire fight. To his right and left lay many students from his classes. Many had eyes misted over. Others had already lost their inner battles with only dried blood to show their demise.

The cadet sat up straighter, steadying his breath. He looked to his right and met a plasma weapon aimed at his head. He recognized the face on the other side of the gun. “Ty…what are you doing?” The classmate glared at Davis for a moment. He was muttering something under his breath. “Are you going to shoot me?” A drop of sweat rolled down Ty’s forehead. Davis finally made out what he was saying under his breath,

“He's faking it. You know he’s faking it. You just gotta kill him, before he kills you first.”

“Ty, it’s me, Davis.”

Ty spoke, his speech fast and stressed, as if he were letting off immense pressure with each sentence,

“No one, absolutely no one, escapes a Grayish mind hold. You either die a bloody mess, or they use your body and memories like a puppet to kill everyone nearest to you. So, no matter how much I want to believe it’s you, I have to pull this trigger.”

The classmate’s hands were now trembling. The speech hadn’t been for himself, it was to give Ty enough resolve to kill his friend.

“Ty, listen to me-”

“No! Enough.”

He re-aimed the weapon at Davis, his finger starting to press down on the trigger. A hand reached over and pushed it down to face the floor. “Stand down, cadet.” A clean shaven man dressed in a pressed uniform stood next to Ty.

“Lieutenant,” Davis said, relief flooding him. The man gave Davis a side-eye and then spoke, “Soldier, execute informational output 00173.” Davis heard his voice answer, but had no control over his speech, “HG-72548, reporting for duty sir.” The lieutenant sighed. “Son of a gun, it’s actually you Davis.” Both Ty and Davis looked at each other with blank expressions. “Okay,” Ty said, “What was that?” The lieutenant picked up a rifle off the ground and tossed it to Davis. “Walk and talk, cadets. We’re not out of this yet.”

Davis stood to his feet, grabbing a disrupter off a nearby corpse. Ty stumbled after the officer, still glancing at Davis. “But sir, how do you know we can trust him?” The lieutenant picked his way over bodies, keeping to the left side of the hall. “We’ve known for years that the Grayish take over people’s minds and use their memories to infiltrate our ranks. We had to figure out a fail-safe, a part of the human mind that the Grayish could not read, where we could plant information to prove that the soldier was still alive and in control.”

“So,” Davis said, stepping over a chunk of charred table, “there are others who have survived being misted?” The lieutenant paused, his weapon lowering to his side. “No, cadet Davis, you are the one and only person to have ever survived.” Davis’ head swam. “What does that mean lieutenant?” Ty said. “I don’t know. But I have a feeling it could be the key to winning this war.” The words hung in the air.

Suddenly Davis could feel a heaviness approaching. Like gravity itself was being sucked towards a single point in front of them. “Get down!” the cadet shouted. A shot of plasma flew over the lieutenant’s head. A split second sooner and he would not have had a head. The officer brought his rifle up to his shoulder and shot into the darkness. Nothing could be seen. Nothing could ever be seen. Except this time.

There was the creature from Davis’ vision. Eyes sunken, mouth twisted into a snarl. The cadet fired, hitting the creatures chest. It let out an ear-piercing screech and then shattered like glass.

Now both the lieutenant and Ty exchanged looks. “Let me guess,” said Ty. “You can now see them too?” Davis nodded, his face pale. The lieutenant shook his head. “This could change everything.”

Everything needed to change, Davis knew that well enough. Humanity’s expansion into the nether regions of the Milky way had turned up countless scientific and technological discoveries. It seemed the human race was on the verge of a golden age of exploration and progress. And then, on some unknown world, they appeared. The Grayish, as they were labelled. Beings of immense cunning and power. Like a plague of locust, devouring and destroying everything in their wake. Colony after colony fell to their advances. Their parasitic battle strategies meant an entire city could be misted, and then used to attack and destroy the rest of the planet. Nobody won against the Grayish. If you were lucky, you might survive.

Davis looked at the disrupters on the lieutenant and cadet’s heads. They were the only thing keeping anyone from being misted. Even with that new technology, the best outcomes had been a handful of survivors to warn humanity of the Grayish’s tactics and brutality.

“Alright.” The lieutenants words brought Davis back to his surroundings. They stood at the end of a long corridor. “Around that corner is the main control center. We lost contact with it the moment the academy was attacked. Keep your eyes peeled.” He glanced at Davis, “Especially you, cadet.” The lieutenant motioned and all three of them stepped around the corner, weapons at the ready.

“Heaven help us,” Ty said. Dozens of bloody bodies lay scattered around the center. A few were on the floor, eyes glazed over. “Do you recognize any of these men, sir?”

One poor man across from Davis suddenly arched his back, his mouth forming into a voiceless scream and then he went limp, blood pouring down his nose. Davis grimaced and closed his eyes as if to clear away the image from his thoughts. He knew it would stay with him to his dying day. Ty knelt down to check the pulse of the man, but the blank expression on his face revealed he didn’t expect to find one.

And then they heard a cough. The lieutenant went over to the sound and found an older man lying against a wall, dried blood on the side of his head, legs torn and broken. “Let me get you medical attention, general.” The general waved away the man’s words. “Nothing can help me now, Adam.” Davis turned at the mention of the lieutenant’s name.

The general continued. “I’ve never seen anything like it. They knew exactly how and when to hit us. The best technology our race can muster, and our sensors didn’t even pick them up.” The lieutenant’s face looked tense. “General, I recognize a few, but who are all the men in this hall?” The general sighed, “They cut us off at the head, lieutenant. Every single one, down to a man, is a leader in our military. They had most of us misted with their brain games before we knew what was going on. Only a handful of us managed to grab disrupters. The rest, well…” He looked down at his ripped legs.

So much for “earth’s last and greatest defense.”

Some unknown force rocked the floor beneath them. Sparks poured out from the lights above. Parts of the hall fell into darkness. “We need to get out of here,” Davis said. The lieutenant nodded, pointing to the wall nearby. “Ty, open that compartment. Code 5721094.” The cadet moved to the panel swiftly, and did as the officer commanded. The lieutenant continued, “We’re gonna get you out of here general.”

There was a split second pause, a moment when all of them could feel a rumble vibrating around them. Davis’ eyes widened. And then the hall tore in two. The walls and ceiling cracked first, with the floor buckling and then shattering in half. The living and dead floated into the blackness.

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space. The line kept repeating in Davis’ head. He had 15 seconds to test that maxim. 15 seconds before he would pass out. All around him were leaders, generals, commanders, gasping for air. 14 seconds. Past them he could see the fleet of Grayish ships, looming like mountains of black volcanic rock. 13 seconds. Many of the GSS ships were in pieces, floating close enough to almost touch. 12 seconds. Other smaller GSS crafts still soared around the black ships, showers of plasma fire being exchanged. 11 seconds. Not a sound reached Davis’ ears. There were not enough molecules to transport them. 10 seconds.

Davis looked to his right and saw Ty. 9 seconds. He was motioning frantically at Davis. 8 seconds. He looked to where the senior cadet was pointing. 7 seconds. Within a few feet of Davis floated air masks. 6 seconds. That’s what the lieutenant had wanted him to retrieve. 5 seconds. Davis reached for his only lifeline. 4 seconds. He could feel his mind growing dark. 3 seconds. This was it. 2 seconds. He felt the mask in his hands. 1 second.