I study the footage of the alien killing the man, trying to take my mind off of Boss and his henchman's murder by figuring out... how he was murdered. Yeah, I didn't really think that one through when I volunteered to watch the tapes.
It seems to take out a small device from the belt I saw it holding, press something, and the huge ray of white light came out of it and aimed for the man.
As I watch the man die again and again, I inhale and steady myself, and Jack appears next to me. "Still not used to watching death yet?"
"Oh, I am," I say, "but it never gets easier."
"I hear that. Now, what's that?" He points to the light, and I put my chin on my knuckles.
"I think, seeing as it virtually disintegrated him into a puff of smoke, it could be something to do with the sun - I mean, nothing else could physically do that to a person, surely - oh, and all the alien seemed to do was try to find the biggest spot of sun," I inform him, "perhaps the alien... I don't know, lives on the sun?"
Jack looks at me. "You're kidding, right?"
"I said I don't know!" I force myself to laugh. "This is my first alien case, leave me alone!"
An idea pops into my head and I switch computers. I type some key words in and scour the results, until I point at the screen triumphantly and call Jack over, knowing my initial thoughts were true.
"Look. Okay, so the sun is made up of plasma, and plasma contributes to the hottest things on Earth. And, the closest planet to the sun is Mercury, though it's one of the coldest planets. Perhaps this alien is from Mercury and thinks the sun could be a type of energy source for its home planet, Mercury! I mean, you've seen the tapes - look at how much energy is stored in that device it has - degrees in the billions. And from how it's just been using it on everything it comes into contact with, it's obvious this creature doesn't understand the sun's full potential. I don't know, Jack, you've been doing this longer than I have, it's just my first case, but what do you think? I've got the web results to back it up."
Jack doesn't reply. I swivel back to where he is leaning with his hands supporting him on the table, staring at the screen in front of him showing a replay of the alien's face whilst it unleashes the power inside the device.
I watch him, tentative and wanting to have done right. "Jack?"
"Look up gravitational compression effects on a life form. And what creatures are cold-blooded."
I do as he says, and on two different computers I relay the results. "There is more gravitational compression on Mercury than Earth, therefore if a creature were to travel between the two worlds they would grow or shrink depending on which direction. And creatures that are cold blooded are amphibians, reptiles and fish. This is interesting though: reptiles need to absorb heat otherwise their metabolism would slow down until their death."
Jack and I look at each other, thinking the same thing.
Jack begins slowly, looking between each screen, "So, if this alien is a sort of reptile that slows down when they can't absorb enough heat... we have a way of stopping it from hurting anyone else."
I grin from ear to ear, trauma pushed to the side. I just solved something! I did that!
Jack moves away to grab his coat and shouts, "Suzie, Tosh, we need ice water, and buckets of it! And we need to stop off at a pharmacist's on the way to where the alien last was!"
"Oh, to get heat regulating supplements, gotcha!" I reply, reaching for my own jacket.
He raises his eyebrows in confusion. "How come you don't know how to drive but you know what heat regulating supplements are?"
I shrug. "Drug rings contain anything and everything - maybe one day I'll tell you all about my disgusting adventures. But for now, to wherever the alien was last!"
We follow the late afternoon sun to the top level of Pierhead Street Car Park, which is thankfully empty apart from a few stray cars. All four of us are in the field, with nobody at the Hub awaiting for instructions to shut something down; of course, it being just the four of us no exits are surrounded, but we shut them off as much as we can.
Jack motions for us to split with our comms open in all directions, and I walk slowly to the north side by myself, gun held up with a steady hand. In just a few minutes of getting to one corner alone, the alien is here. It's using the device to absorb the last bit of sun we can get before the evening falls and the rain from the heavily overcast clouds start. Its movements are slower than earlier, doubtless from the sun slowly lacking, so while it's back is turned I say into the comm, "Guys, it's on the north corner. We need to section it off."
The alien flips its head round almost completely, and its slitted eyes flash in recognition. It unwinds its body so it can walk toward me, and I lower my gun partways to show it I'm civil.
It licks its lips in thoughtfulness, and speaks. "I need the sun."
"I understand," I answer slowly with the same steady voice as earlier, trying not to show my surprise at it knowing English, "we know you need the sun on Mercury, but we need to get you away out of the open; you're scaring people, and they don't take kindly to things they don't understand. We can take you back to our work, get you enough sun to go back. How about that?"
I take a step towards it, and its hackles rise. "No!" it hisses, "You'll experiment on me!"
"No we won't," I say firmly, although I don't surely know what would happen if we got it into these cells we have that Jack keeps talking about, "we want to help you, not figure you out. Okay?"
I take one hand off my gun and hold out my hand to it, smiling kindly. The alien looks down to my hand like it's never seen skin before, then squints at me, unsure of my promise.
We stand in slow motion, it reaching for my hand as slowly as a snail, until suddenly we hear clear as a bell Jack a few tens of feet away shout for Suzie and Tosh to get around us.
The alien's eyes narrow back into slits and it's hackles rise again. With its last bolt of energy it reaches out and pulls my hand until I'm trapped within its grasp.
"Hey!" I protest angrily, my gun dropped to the floor, and it kicks the gun away and tries to restrain me further. "You won't take me! You humans are worse than we are told! You just want to stick pins into me and find out about me! Leave me be! All I want is the sun!"
Suddenly I'm taken back so fast I get whiplash to my time in the drugring: grabbed and contained by drunks and users whom I didn't want anywhere near me; hair pulled to the point of it falling out; the unspeakable things they used to do to me, all the while pinning me down or squeezing me so tight I couldn't escape.
The memories burst out of me from the alien capturing me in such a fit that I scream in its face, "Fuck off!" and lunge forward, taking it completely by surprise. In the momentary shock I'm able to snatch its device out of its belt, and I reel back to point it at it.
Not even thinking, I press the button on the underbelly of the device I saw it use earlier, and a ray of blinding white light streams out of it, pointed at the alien.
It yelps in pain and writhes before me, gradually lowering itself onto the ground. I squint through the overbearing light to watch it scream so terrifyingly it makes my blood curdle, and then, it just disappears.
I widen my eyes despite the pain from the light, and scramble to find the button I pressed before. I press it again and the white light deteriorates, leaving me with the sight of a cloud of smoke.
I stare down at the dusty pile, frozen in place with the knowledge of what I just did. I just killed an alien. An actual living being with thoughts and emotions, who just wanted to go home and make itself and its loved ones happy.
I drop to my knees, my hands placed either side of the pile. My breath catches in my throat, and I can't end the dryness in my mouth. Overwhelmed, I start to cry. I haven't cried for so long that it almost feels relieving to release all my grief, all my emotions, all my pain. I ramp it up to loudly sobbing, grieving the alien I just murdered in cold blood, and I hear footsteps rushing toward me. I daren't look up, so the figure kneels down next to me and says in a quiet American accent, "Evelina, tell me what happened."
Eyes still locked on what once was an actual soul, I manage to restrain my crying enough to tell him, "I was trying to reason with it, and it didn't work so it started getting angry and it held me down, and something in me snapped, and I got hold of the thing and activated it without thinking, and now... and now..."
Jack realises what I'm saying and places a hand on my shoulder gently, which I twitch at momentarily, and another hand on the bottom of my chin so I turn up to look at him. I'm used to, when people do that to me, a hideous soulless criminal looking back at me; this time, although I still don't fully trust him and there's something about him that's off, it's somebody I already recognise as trustworthy enough for me to fall into his arms and ignore the tribulations with.
I stand up and pull myself into a big hug, my body shrouded by his long military coat. In response, Jack strokes my hair in what I'm supposed to think is reassurance, but takes me back somewhere really dark which I don't like and push away from, then watch him frown in confusion.
Instead of asking me why I did that, he wordlessly holds out a hand to me. Through blurry visions I take it, despite all my suspicions about him and the underlying feeling I shouldn't. He squeezes my hand gently, letting me know he's there even if I don't trust him to be. I squeeze back weakly, he smiles warmly and with more authenticity I've seen before, and starts to guide me back to the SUV.
I see Toshiko and Suzie a distance away asking about the alien, but all Jack simply says is, "Don't worry." As we get into the car Jack lets go of my hand and I feel some sort of loss, of a lack of breath. I need someone, even him, to finally be the leader when I'm down. I've spent so long being the crutch and leader of every other slave, the strong one; that I know if I had the choice, I wouldn't be it ever again.
I look across to Jack driving, looking straight ahead with a contemplative look on his face with eyes that seem older than himself, and try to calm myself down with the fact that I've made a friend in this impossible energy of a man.