NaNoWriMo: Chapter 12 Excerpt

James waved his acknowledgment, close enough to permission by the young scientist's standards it would seem, as he began rooting around in the pockets of his suit for some tools of some sort. Before he poked a needle into the bodies, James grabbed Eva's arm and nudged her around the central station of consoles toward the other half of the pod. They could just see the drill, resting forever idle now, between the computer consoles that formed a tight ring around it in the center of the space. James pulled out his HHAD and shook his head after examining it. "The anomalous reading is in this room but what is it?"

"Maybe...i-it c-could be th-that?" Eva stammered, her arm was extended and trembling as she pointed into the darkest corner. James looked up and stepped forward, hoping to see further into the corner but she grasped his shoulders quickly, stopping him in his tracks.

Then, slowly and awkwardly, the shadow moved! Or rather something within the shadow moved. They heard a raspy, shallow gasp and breath followed by the scrapping of metal against metal. James pried Eva's fingers from his shoulders before reaching down and pulling out the pistol he'd collected during suiting up. With one quick glance at Eva, he leveled it at the shadow just as one of the aliens crawled into the thin strip of light.

Like his companions, he was coated in blood and appeared to be badly wounded. In spite of her fear, Eva was overwhelmed by compassion and started towards him. "Stop Eva," James said, his gun still leveled on the alien's crippled body.

"He's wounded...." she looked back and forth between them for a moment before starting again in the alien's direction.

"Eva! Stay back!" James's shouts caused her to halt once more. "He deserves to die for what he's done."

"It wasn't him though, his people maybe but not him." Eva put herself in his line of sight, causing him to flinch briefly. "Besides, that's not us. We don't do that..."

"Move Eva." James felt his hand began to tremble but he didn't drop his arm or the weapon. "That's an order."

"Not if you plan to kill him! I won't let you."

James looked at her as if she'd gone mad, in his mind she more or less must be to defend this beast! "Eva! Think of all the people they slaughtered out there!" He pointed toward the doors which led back to the rest of the colony. "And on Earth. The families. Entire cities were destroyed by his people! Without any mercy! And you want me to have mercy for it now?!" His eyes were thick with unshed tears that he wished he could swipe away.

Eva, too, was crying and shaking but she stood, resolutely, in her place. "James," she gulped. "James...this isn't you." Her voice was small, just barely above a whisper, but the words struck home. "You," she sniffled, "James Hunt, you are a good man. And the James I know....my James – he wouldn't kill a man in cold blood. Now even this man – this alien." She shook her head fiercely as she spoke, the tears flowing down her face were obscured by her visor but he could hear it in her voice. "This isn't you...this isn't us..."

Humbled and shamed by her words, James faltered and dropped his arm to his side. The weapon hung limply in his hand and he closed his eyes tight in an attempt to regain his composure. At the same time, the alien was slithering across the floor, unbeknownst to either of them. Though he'd been stabbed and laying in a pool of his own blood since then, he stumbled to his feet and struck, with trained precision. By the time Eva let out a startled gasp, drawing James's attention, the alien had an arm wrapped around her chest. In the other hand, he clutched a shard of glass and was pressing it against the tube that supplied Eva's air supply.