Chapter 1: The Encounter

A low dreary buzzing of fluorescent lamps could be overheard, bathing the dull-eyed laboratory in an artificial blaze. The scattered working papers hung me: and the monitors embedded in the walls made me realize how much inside work was going on screeching out. Personalities included Alexis Carter, as she was making sense of the information that was on the screen directly in front of her – riddling green eyelashes and all. She was methodical in her approach, brilliant scientist also known as ‘the perfectionist’ though, restraint was in her own way. Normally her raven hair was done in a severe bun but gradually, as the afternoon wore on, it came undone and few strands lay across her hairline. This incessant bombardment was taking its toll with dark circles ringing her eyes, clearly watching many more unnaturally working hours than usual in anticipation of the requirements for the new assignment at hand.

I’m so near, she thought, shrugging her feet on the computer’s keyboard. Somewhere nearby, something is present, some enormous matter.

However, for the past six months, Alexis was getting some muffled signals from outer space The white noise, the incoherence on a merry page, yes, yes, yes, all of these. Low-pitched beta waves: gauze this wave and all that swirling confusion. Or at least, to the underlings. Not even at the university did anyone else presumably get rid of her that way. But since the beginning, Alexis was a woman of guts, A woman who could take several risks and at times succeed. This time though, there was an intuition that the turn would come, one that went high and crystal clear.

When the signal pulsed once more across her screen, a strangely low rhythm, Alexis simpy got nearer and held her breath. This time it was sustained, heaving like a chest.

“C’mon, I want you to speak to me,” she muttered almost inaudibly and turned the knobs at her apparatus.

The pulse resolved into a coherent throb, a deep thrumming that was no longer a noise, but rather a rhythm, a message in code, one she didn't know.

Holy crap!

She felt a spritz of fright deal with her at the realization that there was data that had to be captured and hastily left to attempt to capture it, her body shaking a little in panic. For a fraction of a second the box began to feel too small for where she was, where the place was beginning to be filled up after I fully comprehended the novelty of what just happened. It was not background radiation from outer space—it was some form of message exchange.

The sound of the firing up jets thresholded the noise. The ceiling of the room gave way to shaky light, and Alexis was lifted in her seat and startled. It was an ominous sound—making it ubiquitous, escalating.

And then the place regained its tranquility proving to be even more nerve wracking for Alexis.

Alexis stayed frozen, pumping hard against for her body’s uncooperative inhibition, thinking very fast instead of acting as she just wished to run. There was something outside. Slowly, she approached the window and gazed out. She then waited on the glass and poured over the dark and too dark for more sights troubled her until she noticed – movement.

A body, judiciously built and broad shouldered, emerged from the rear depths, and was momentarily lit by a bout of light from the street. The figure was human to all outward appearances, but there was something in him— in the way he shifted, also holding back a strength bubbling within. He was clad with a coat which was long and dark that flew freely with the wind; his face too was concealed in shadows, but the countenance had a growing mix of rage and tiredness.

And who is that now?

As if anticipating her thoughts, the figure pivoted sharply and stared at her through the glass, which was supposed to be inanimate. Time seemed to halt for an instant. Those bewildering, piercing matters of Him were the eyes: a bright lemony electric blue, and in that moment of surprise she was breathless and didn’t know why. There was something so recognizable in such orbs – hieroglyphs of wisdom.

She instinctively retreated from the window, her heart hammering violently. The lab door was pushed open and she stood up quickly to hear an almost inaudible sound of feet, dull, softer than soft.

“Who are you?” she shouted, even though harshly and much total failure was her emotion management.

The man moved closer to the light and turned more in her direction. He was the absolute tallest but the most muscular breadth she’d maybe even encountered in any books. His face was different too of delightful angles and cuts with prominent cheekbones and a jaw that seemed to hew stone. His skin was fair and almost glowed like a bulb from within as he walked under the bright lights in the laboratory. His hair was also black with most of it wind tossed so it landed just above the shoulders.

This is why she was staring into his eyes for longer than her surroundings. Those eyes did not have light about them like a reflection, the light came from deep inside as if something was ignited within.

“My name is Kayden,” he said. The accent in his voice was one she could not quite place. “And I need your help.”

Alexis then now felt a shiver run down her spine. Where she had always been very logical and stayed with what the facts and the data said. But this man – this being – had somehow managed to disturb the very basis of everything she thought she knew.

“I don’t think I’ve met you before,” she said to him, her voice becoming calm now, “but you really don’t belong here, it’s a restricted area”. This was too much for him. A girl who looked no older than eighteen was putting up such concerns.

Kayden moved in closer, but did not flinch, giving her a stoic gaze. “There’s no time for small talk right now. You have already picked up on the signal haven’t you?”

Alexis squinted. “How do you know about that?”

“Because it’s why I’m here,” Kayden said, the anger going from cool to hot, almost unbearably hot in its precipitation. “The signal you’ve been receiving–it’s a cry for help. From my people. We are in need of your assistance, Alexis.”

Hearing her name being pronounced by him made more chills run through her body. How did he possible learn my name?

"You’re not an authority to me? You can’t make me believe you like that,” she replied while folding her arms before him. “How would I even begin to know what do you even are?”

Kayden’s eyes changed and for a moment there seemed to flit something of pain. “I come here to fight you. I don’t want to do that. But if you are not going to help me. If you are not going to understand what is going on, then your world…the world that you know… every single fact of it will be in grave danger.”

For a few seconds, everyone in the room was dumbstruck and silent, even more so because they were still reeling from the shock of what he just said.

“In what way?” Alexis asked, dropping her voice as low as she could manage without totally losing it.

“… wars are coming, and this place, this Earth, is about to get involved in the conflict.” Kayden upbraided her When telling him that.

Alexis felt her knees weaken, but she kept her voice steady. “A war? Between who?”

He sighed and placed his hand in his hair. “It’s complicated. There’s a race of beings—my people’s enemies. For centuries these people have been looking for that technology buried on your planet. The signal you received that why? It was a warning. They're coming.”

Alexis blinked, and her mind worked very hard to understand the context. “And you are just… what collapsing into this war somewhere as a soldier?”

Kayden let a bitter smile lift the corners of his lips. “Something like that.”

She turned to look at him, hoping to find something that was not monstrous in his face, but saw only sincerity – and desperation. A rational part of her brain was wishing her to sprint away, call security, or such other approaches away from this particularly weird foreigner who was claiming to be an alien. But another part of her, the part that had always been fascinated with the mysteries of the world, with newness, prevented her from moving even a bit.

“Why me?” she inquired, her tone more subdued. “Why do you wish to pursue this with me?”

“Because you’re the only one who is in a position to help,” Kayden said, moving in her direction. It was soft, and full of a tenderness that was so unlike him that it took her by surprise. “I’ve been following you. Your career. You’re talented, Alexis. We need that talent because what’s coming, we can’t let it happen.”

Her heart skipped a beat. He has been looking at me from a distance? She feared it, as if it were a threat, but it was panic- there was another thing. Something she could not put her finger on, a kind of attraction to him. It was as if she was destined to cross paths with him, to be involved in something larger than herself.

Alexis gulped hard as if she had just swallowed dry bread. “Trust is a big step, sir. I’m not sure if I would be able to do that.”

Kayden’s eyes softened for just a moment, the flying kiss he threw in the air conceded that she was confused, grudgingly submitting to the reality that was present. “I see why. But you are in a decision making process, Alexis. I am fast running out of minutes. So are you.”

The pressure in his voice made her heart pound in her chest. The burden of the choice that she was being given hung down on her like an anchor, the weight of the way what he wanted her to do. It was too difficult but it also felt like it was going to happen.

Before she could even give a proper answer, the low hum of the signal was back in the room, the signal she had been tracking for the last several months. Only this time it was louder too, more furious as though it were only waiting for her to notice it.

Kayden’s eyes met hers and in that instant she understood everything. What ever it is that was taking place, what ever it is that danger he was talking about – it was true.

And she was in the middle of it all.

“Okay, so I will help you,” Alexis’s voice did not shake this time though she felt like she was filled with fear gushing inside her. “In exchange however, you had better start doing some explaining of everything. Now.”

“Sure. I will,” it was particularly amusing to see how Kayden’s tension visibly washed over his features. “But first, we need to get out of here. They’re coming.”

Alexis inhaled deeply, aware of the untapped potential that was all around her. She had no clue what she was getting into, and there was no way of knowing if she could trust this machine in front of her in her own lab. But somehow she understood that this was just the first scene.

And that whatever the next event would be it was going to affect her life in a more radical manner.