The Perfect Run

• December 12th, 1992, Antarctica.

Eva Fabre loved watching the night sky.

She couldn’t see the stars in Paris, but Antarctica had no light pollution to hide them. Auroras danced in the heavens, while the Milky Way shone brightly above her head. The night seemed alive and full of wonders, the darkness of space overwhelmed by islands of light.

Was there ever a more beautiful sight?

Eva had wanted to become an astronaut when she was a child. But being born in the wrong place at the wrong time, her chances had been dim from the start. Instead, she became a geneticist, and eventually rose through the ranks to become the head scientist of Station Orpheon. Instead of landing on the moon, she led a large team in studying dangerous plagues.

The French government had chosen Antarctica as the site’s location for a few reasons. Mostly, it was meant to avoid dangerous containment breaches, but also to study ancient viruses frozen beneath the ice. Some of them could devastate the Earth if unleashed, and Eva’s superior wanted to keep an edge in the field of bioweapons. The USSR’s collapse left the future uncertain.

Some would have resented working on weapons of mass destruction, but Eva slept soundly at night. International relationships were based on force, and strength derived from technological superiority. For her country to survive, it needed to stay ahead of the competition by any means necessary. Maybe her work would kill millions one day, maybe not. Though she would rather see nukes stay in their silos, they would come in handy if doomsday ever came.

Eva was paid to do a dirty job, but it was a necessary one.

Standing near her special 4x4, Eva sensed the cold creeping into her suit. Though she wore heavy clothing, including a parka, goggles, mittens, and a balaclava, Antarctica was Earth’s harshest environment. No one was truly safe from it, and she was kilometers away from the station, surrounded only by ice.

But Eva didn’t care. The night sky’s sight warmed her already.

She knew aliens existed above. The samples she found in Antarctica had all but convinced her that life came from space, in the form of primordial viruses and bacteria. What kind of strange and wonderful creature inhabited the stars above her head?

She hoped to live long enough to find out.

“Pierre to Eva?” Her assistant called her through the intercom. “Pierre to Eva?”

“I’m here,” she replied. “Just stargazing.”

“Oh, good, I was getting worried.”

Of course he was. Pierre was anxious by nature, and he always advised Eva not to go out alone. Truth be told, the scientist enjoyed these quiet moments of solitude she couldn’t find in the communal station. Eva didn’t particularly feel close to anyone, and didn’t want to. Her work was her life.

“You should go back though,” Pierre said. “We’re picking up abnormal electromagnetic activity in your area.”

“Probably the auroras,” Eva replied absentmindedly. Now that she said that, their colors seemed to change from green to a light shade of violet. “I’ll be back soon.”

“Sorry I did…” Pierre’s voice turned into a radio static. “Eva…”

“Pierre?” Eva called out, her communicator starting to bug out. “Pierre, can you hear me?”

No answer but a static.

“Pierre?” Eva asked again, only to squint through her goggles. The auroras above her head had grown brighter, streaks of purple light illuminating the frozen wasteland. The static turned into a droning sound, almost ear-piercing. “Pierre?”

Another voice answered, but with a bestial roar rather than a word.

The ground shook beneath Eva’s feet, small rifts and cracks forming into the ice. The heavens brightened further, until the night turned into a purple day.

Realizing something was wrong, Eva immediately jumped back inside her vehicle and smashed the accelerator. The strong, reinforced wheels dashed on the snow, while the scientist immediately drove back towards Station Orpheon.

“Pierre? Pierre?” Eva kept calling through the intercom, but all she heard were strange, incomprehensible sounds. “Pierre, are you seeing this?”

Two violet auroras had split the skies in half. Space itself was being ripped apart, like the lids of a giant eye opening. A black spot widening in a sea of purple light, a black hole growing from the heart of a phantom star.

Though a part of her was desperate to get away, Eva ended up peeking through her window to get a better look. Her curiosity overwhelmed her survival instinct.

The black spot had grown to gigantic size, giving the scientist a direct window to look through. Only then did she realize that she was looking at a gate into the very fabric of space-time.

A colossal, black structure with metal wings crossed the void of space, carried by reactors leaving a crimson streak of light in their wake. The immense machine was as large as a human city, smashing through asteroids like a tank through pebbles.

A swarm of small red, spearlike machines harassed the giant vessel, violently ramming into its hull like daggers. The giant black machine retaliated with confusing flashes of blue light and red lasers. Orange energy coated the hull at some points, the red vessels shattered when they tried to pierce these areas.

Starships. These were starships.

A battle, Eva thought, both awed and horrified by the sight. They’re fighting.

Aliens existed, and they were at war.

The giant ship’s hull faced down, towards Eva and Antarctica. By now, most of the red swarm had either been destroyed, or successfully pierced the hull. The rest backed away, as the black starship started crossing the portal and moved ever closer to Eva.

It was about to crash.

“No, no, no!” Eva drove faster than ever before, the car’s engine steaming. Yet though the starship’s fall was slow, it was inevitable. The ground shook beneath her wheels as the kilometer-long cruiser’s bow impacted Antarctica not so far from her location. The earthquake caused her car’s alarm to blare like a dying screech of agony.

“Holy—”

Eva never finished her sentence, as a bright purple flash swallowed her whole, followed by a tide of snow. Ice shards were blown in all directions, cracking her reinforced windshield and tussling the vehicle to the side. Her head smashed against the airbag as her car rolled a dozen times, and the darkness swallowed her.

When Eva regained consciousness, her car had been turned upside down, the roof on the snow, the wheels pointing up. The scientist’s vision blurred as her hand reached for the door, and it took her a few minutes to crawl out of her vehicle’s husk. Snow had piled up around it, forcing Eva to dig her way out with her bare mittens. A few drops of frozen water slipped inside her suit, making her wince.

When the scientist managed to stand up outside her vehicle, she wondered if the stars had vanished in the skies. It took her a moment to understand the truth.

An enormous dome overshadowed her.

The starship had crashed into Antarctica’s surface, most of it now buried beneath the snow tide raised by the impact. Its sleek metal surface was as black as a starless night, and eye-like windows seemed to observe her.

Eva gathered her breath. Though she didn’t believe in any God, she had to admit her survival was nothing short of miraculous. If she had chosen another spot to stargaze, the ship would have crushed her 4x4.

After quickly checking if she had any wounds, Eva immediately attempted to contact her base. “Pierre? Pierre, can you hear me?”

No reception. Eva carefully stepped out of the ship’s shadow to look at the skies, and to her shock, the stars were gone. Darkness ruled absolute, besides a few violet lightning bolts. The strange meteorological phenomenon probably interfered with communications.

Eva tried to dig up her car, but quickly realized it was hopeless. The successive shocks had ruined the engine, and she had no idea how to repair it. The emergency radio didn’t work either, so there was no way to contact her base.

She had emergency rations left in the trunk though, alongside the flashlight, a portable heater, shovels, and other basic tools. She could hold out a few days in the hope of being rescued. There was no way her fellow scientists would miss the crash.

Still, doubt gnawed at her each time she looked up. Eva took the flashlight, checked the battery, and toured the crash site.

It took her hours.

The ship’s size defied comprehension, and more than half of it was now buried under tons of ice. She remembered seeing wings and reactors during its fall, but only the dome and upper decks remained above ground. Nobody came out to intercept her either.

The scientist eventually found an entrance of some sort, namely advanced blast doors on the alien ship’s right side. A cursory analysis informed her that they were made of strange, orange metals she couldn’t recognize. The crash had breached the gates, leaving a crack large enough for Eva to slip in with some effort.

She almost tried her luck, before deciding it was too dangerous to go alone. She needed to call Station Orpheon, her team, the military. They had to know. Everybody had to know.

Aliens existed.

This… this changed everything.

This was the greatest event in mankind’s history since the discovery of fire! This would… this would alter the fate of the world forever! Eva would live long enough to see mankind make first contact with a highly advanced civilization, one clearly capable of interstellar travel!

was only one intelligent species across the stars, and internal divisions no longer mattered. If the aliens willingly shared their technology, then nobody would fight over resources

discovery would foster universal peace? The creation of a unified human government that wouldn’t need biological weapons? For a moment, Eva found herself dreaming of a world

then, she

was at war. The scientist had

communication. Once she left the strange meteorological phenomenon’s range, she could reorient herself with the stars. Her flashlight was adapted to Antarctica’s frost, but she didn’t have limitless energy

two hours in one direction, only to find herself

north and south. Each time she returned to her starting

been closed to her, perhaps as a defensive measure by the ship… or Earth stopped existing outright. No wonder she couldn’t

was only one place to

her breath, Eva approached the blast doors and examined the crack. When the scientist pointed her light through the rift, she couldn’t see much. But there was enough space for her to

someone there?” Eva called out through the hole.

answer. Even the strange gnarls that she heard before the

courage, put her hands into the crack, and slowly

icy dust floated in the room. The flashlight revealed strange stains of green slime on the walls, which Eva was careful

breathe. Either the aliens needed oxygen to live, or the outside atmosphere had slipped inside the vessel. The inside of the ship was cold, but nowhere near so as the

and entered a network of enormous metal corridors. Red crystals embedded in the ceiling provided light, but half of them had shattered. Sometimes, Eva walked more than twenty minutes in one direction with only her flashlight for comfort. Her steps echoed

same black metal as the rest of the ship, so sleek that

had been designed to house creatures of various sizes. But Eva didn’t find

the empty vessel, but only an echo answered. “Is someone

wait for long to find out. After a long, solitary walk, Eva finally found doors left

Or rather, blasted open.

reminded Eva of stealth bombers and flying wings, flat triangles with advanced reactors to carry them. All of them showed signs of damage, and carried a strange symbol engraved on their hull; a mark that reminded Eva of a strange fusion between an

stench filled the

Eva asked, using her flashlight to search her surroundings. Very few of the red

cast light on an animal’s

the darkness. Entrails

Corpses.

Corpses everywhere.

her horror, Eva had walked

the dozens, maybe by the hundreds. All of them wore a strange kind of futuristic armor, combining orange metal plates with circuits of various colors, a visored helmet, and various organic weapons embedded in the arms. But they all came in different sizes and shapes.

The machines had legs and arms like humanoids, but sharp claws, cannons on the chest, and a single

engraved on their armor. She found the same mark on some of the robots, but

found the ramming ships piercing through them. Their

vessels into its outer shielding. The inhabitants had put up a fierce resistance, but were

since the robots wore the same flag as their enemies, but crossed… This looked like a civil war

calm down. What kind of nightmare had she stepped into? Was… was there even a

examined the corpse, in case one of them was… she didn’t know herself. Faking the dead? Only wounded? Her hopes were quickly dashed. The winning side had mercilessly finished off

creature unlike the others. It wore futuristic, orange armor like some of the others, but the body shape... two legs, two

while thick green blood flowed from a large hole in the chest. The scientist could see hints of a dead heart with wires for arteries, and lungs of metal. The armor had been surgically grafted to

shiver went down

It…

a

replaced with cybernetics, but the eyes

dead. By the time she exited the hangar for the rooms beyond, she could hardly take a step without nearly slipping on severed

that was the least disturbing

into some kind of lab, where countless specimens floated inside heart-shaped, techno-organic machinery. Cable-veins pumped the containers

be gutted open, their organs replaced with cybernetic implants. Most however belonged to scaled creatures of various sizes. One was an embryo the size of a dog, another a reptilian humanoid with two eyes. The next container held a larger, leaner variant with four eyes and elongated arms, and the one afterward a spiked, armored monster with five ocular organs. The more eyes the creatures had,

exception stuck out

the alien glass separating them, the slime manifested tentacles and bumped at its prison’s

noise echoed

on herself, pointing her flashlight in a

was crawled in the darkness, its orange armor drenched in green blood. Its left arm was a cannon, the right a bloody, broken stump. An armored lizard tail wavered behind him, while three eyes pleaded at Eva through a cracked visor. The alien

alive?” Eva you idiot, of course

with a sad sound. It then glanced

to establish communication. And it

woman by nature, she couldn’t

carefully approached the creature, to better examine the wounds. “I… I have bandages in my car, but

human, Eva noticed a change in its eyes. Something

as a gunslinger and opened fire, a crimson laser barely missing the scientist. The blast vaporized some of her parka’s hair, and shattered

its cannon at her head again.

No more ammo.

roar and started crawling towards her. The scientist quickly rose back to her feet and stepped back, horrified. The creature might suffer from terrible wounds, its three eyes glared at the human with hateful

Eva snarled, before kicking the alien in its wound. Unable to support its weight on the stump, the monster collapsed visor first, letting out

It tried to lower my guard and kill me. It was

her core. She had always thought alien civilizations advanced enough for interstellar

She had been wrong.

predators, and she had just

then did she remember that the alien had

only to watch a tide

filling her ears, fusing with her skin, entering her bloodstream. It filled her cells and her marrow, overloaded her nerves with blue light, and stuffed her brain with knowledge. She

She remembered kissing an old boyfriend and a girl she had never met, filling out a doctorate in genetics and another in quantum physics, watching night and sky. She was Eva Fabre, and she was someone else. She split again,

than the sum of its

vanished and Eva could

Fabre looked back at the original. Some carried a flashlight,

Her own lack of emotion surprised her.

think I’m you,” a double said. “Another

are,” added

won

time others answered with “Raymond Barre,” “De Gaulle again,” “Giscard, unfortunately,” or “Nobody, country’s

put Eva on edge. “François Mitterrand won the

the same time,

of herself left a strange feeling in Eva-One at first, but she quickly got used to it. Humans felt safer

they explored another corridor

with a flashlight. They had grown more numerous the farther the group advanced, probably because the

the others listened attentively. “We aren’t truly alternate versions of each other, but

the original matters,” Eva-6 said while looking at Eva-One. “We

none of us

perished when she accidentally triggered an alien corpse’s weapon. Her body had collapsed into blue particles before her head hit the ground,

touched the ship’s blue doors, causing them to open. “The aliens probably use this

nobody shoots us,” Eva-4 said grimly, hands on her gun. “Somehow, I don’t think bullets

purge, and they hadn’t crossed paths with a robot still active. “It

war? Racial genocide?” Eva-4 asked.

and avoid conflict if they can,” Eva-6 pointed out. “This

know,” Eva-One said, as they reached the broken remains of

“We will,” Eva-3 agreed.

walked into had no other entrance or exit. It was the largest they had visited yet, and the strangest. The dome had circuits pulsating with blue energy straining the walls, all joining at a colossal glass tank full of colored liquid in the center. The structure was larger

battle there had been the fiercest. A ten-eyed, twelve-meters tall alien with the bulkiest armor seen yet had fought to the death to protect the entrance, with none of the robotic invaders getting anywhere near the brain. The giant destroyed so many of them that the

than swiss cheese, and lost all its blood. Most strangely, a severed organic tentacle once linked the monster’s head

overseeing the ship,” Eva-5 said, as she examined a tentacle. The organic device’s end opened

be neural interfaces,” Eva-2 guessed while checking up on the dead alien. “Perhaps the ship crashed when the attackers managed to slay

spatial jump was a desperate

find out,” Eva-One replied,

at the original anxiously, as she removed the clothes and goggles protecting her face. “You’re sure?” Eva-3 asked.

we can’t find a way out,” Eva-One replied. “Eating alien flesh might

just want to learn the truth,” Eva-4 said. “And