Omega Strain
Title: Omega Strain
Author: Druidesswolf
Fandom: Original
Pairing: Taylor Masters/???
Rating: Let's just go with R thru out, with spatterings of NC-17 and PG-13. I'll let ya know when the NC-17 stuff comes up.
Archiving: Passion & Perfection....all other's ask
Summary: They say that with great power, comes great responsibility. They also say that absolute power corrupts absolutely. So when the survival of one race of beings could mean the annihilation of Earth, which path will one woman choose when granted that power by a mysterious woman whose motives are as unknown as the vastness of time.
Authors Note: This is very much a WIP and un-beta'd. This is a story that has been dancing thru my head for years, I've written and re-written it many times, but this is the one that finally stuck. SO....feedback is greatly appreciated!!!
Disclaimer: MINE!
Present Day
Somewhere on Earth
Standing in an empty field, enshrouded in thick tendrils of mist, a lone woman stands cloaked in white with her head bowed. Silent and still, a lone sentinel, ever watchful and patient. A gentle breeze stirs the predawn mist, sending the wisps of it swirling around the legs of the living statue. Breathing in deeply, trying to inhale the serenity of the unbroken silence the world only experiences just before the sun rises. She slowly lifts her head as a low mournful note sounds across the deserted field. Twin pale blue lights glow from the depths of her hood and she smiles.
"As it begins," She tilts her head back, her glowing eyes tracking the gray sky, narrowing to electric blue slits as the first ship break through the cloud coverage, angling toward the earth so far below. Turning in a slow graceful pivot, she silently watches as one by one, more ships enter the atmosphere. Soon, the sky is black with the invading force, her head snaps to the right upon hearing the scream of engines as a squadron of fighter jets streak towards the iridesent black ships on a collision course with death, she breaths in as an electrical pulse sparks from the largerst ship and breaths out as the entire squadron erupts in a massive explosion before flaming debris rains down around her destroying her sancturary.
"So too, does it end."
6 years ago
Detective Taylor Masters sits in her car, sipping her third cup of coffee in as many hours bored out of her mind. Her partner, Abe Johnston sits in the passenger seat next to her, snoring softly, his chin resting on his chest, asleep. Perfect. Rolling her eyes at the rookie beside her as she takes another small sip and peers out the slightly fogged up windshield wishing it was morning already so she could crawl into her nice warm bed and sleep for twelve hours. She snorts softly, swirling her coffee as she looks down into her half full cup. Yeah right, with all the unexplained disappearences lately she would be lucky if she got more than a few hours of sleep. The radio crackled to life causing Abe to snort loudly and jerk his head up looking around in confusion. Taylor smirks as she reaches for the mic, "Good morning sleeping beauty. Sleep well?"
Abe grins sheepishly at her as he adjusts himself in his seat. It amazed him that she was still awake, everyone was feeling the stress of the last few weeks. So many people going missing without a trace to be found. The only lead they had was that every single disappearence happened within a 5 mile radius of their current location, and all eye witness accounts reported a bright blinding light coming from the sky before the victims vanished. Shaking his head to clear it he listened in as his new partner spoke with the Chief. "What's your status, Masters?" a disembodied male voice demanded over the radio. Depressing the talk button Taylor lifts the radio to her mouth before speaking.
"Silent as a grave Chief. We've been in the same spot for the last 6 hours and haven't seen anything." Releasing the button she looks out her window again, watching as her breath causes the window to fog up even more.
"Give it 2 more hours then call it a night. Go home, get some sleep. We'll reevaluate in the morning." Came the order from Chief Wilkins.
"Copy that, Chief. Masters out." Placing the radio back in it's cradle she leans her head back against the head rest of her seat and sighs tiredly finishing her coffee. They sat in silence for a half hour before either spoke.
"What do you think happened to those people, Masters?" Abe asked quietly. Taylor tiredly rolls her head towards him and regards him silently for so long that he began to think she wasn't going to answer him.
"I don't know, Rook. I don't think anyone really knows, that's what's so frustrating about all this. There's no evidence, no trace, no blood, no bodies. They just..." she waves her hand negligently towards the surrounding landscape. "vanished." The younger investigator frowned slightly looking out at the night she had just gestured to debating on whether or not he should ask his next question, finally he shrugs figuring he might as well, half the town believed it anyway.
"Do you think it really was aliens?" Lifting her head, she shot a quick glance at him before focusing her gaze outside once more, when she speaks, her voice is low.
"If you had asked me that a week and a half ago I would have fallen out of this car laughing at you." They share amused grins before she continues. "but now....Now I just don't know. I'm beggining to wonder if it's not possible. If maybe there's something more here that we're not seeing, if maybe all those witness that saw that light, weren't so crazy after all." He nods, he's been thinking the same thing. There were just to many unanswered questions. To many coincedences, and every story they had heard was exactly the same, almost verbatim. Only the situation varied. Anything from a bonfire party to kids tearing up the fields in the their 4x4's to hikers, campers and passing motorists. There was no pattern, it was completely random. No common denomiators, nothing linking any of the victims to each other. And all of them, every damn last one, claimed to see a blinding white light come down from the sky, envelope the vic then both the light and the vic vanished. As if neither had ever been there to begin with. They sit in silence after that, each lost in their thoughts but unwilling to give those thoughts a voice.
After another hour passes, Taylor stretches in her seat and sits up, buckling her seat belt she looks over at Abe, chuckling when she finds him alseep again. "Rookies." she mutters before shifting the car into gear and slowly pulling out onto the highway, heading back into town and hopefully to bed. As she pulls into the parking lot, Johnston wakes up.
"Shit." They both say, taking in the overflowing lot. There's no place for them to park their car, every space is taken by civilian vehicles. It seems like everyone in town is there. Taylor drives around to the front of the building and almost cheers when she finds an open spot. Whipping in, she shuts the car off and unbuckles. "Might as well go see what's going on." She says, getting out of the car and grabbing her gear from the trunk. Abe follows suit and they head inside. As soon as they open the door their ears are assaulted by the noise. Everyone is talking, or shouting in some cases. Apparently panic had finally take root in the good citizens of Salida, Colorado. The two stand back as the watch the desk sergent trying to speak over the din of voices and failing miserably. Chief Wilkins exits his office with a bull horn in his hand. Bringing it up to his mouth he bellows.
"ALRIGHT! EVERYONE SHUT THE HELL UP!" Shocked silence decsends over the precinct as everyone turns to stare at the man. Wilkins lowers the bull horn and addresses the crowd. "I know that this is very difficult for everyone. Especially the families of those that have disappeared, but understand that we are doing everything we can to find them. I have every officer working round the clock trying to find something that will lead us to them." The words no sooner leave his mouth than a middle aged man flies through the front doors nearly knocking Masters and Johnston down in his flight. "My daughter! She's gone!" Taylor looks around at the mob and briefly considers dropping a pin to see if you really could hear it, shaking her head ruefully at her own sleep deprived thoughts she puts her hand on the mans arm. "Sir, please calm down." She opens her mouth to say more but the distraught father jerks his arm from her grasp. "NO! She's gone! She was in her room doing her homework and when I went to check on her, her window was open and she was gone! She's been taken!" His entire body starts to shake and Taylor can see he's about to go into a full blown panic attack and quickly stears him to a chair asking Abe to get him some water. "Okay, lets just calm down. Take a deep breath. That's it. Now, could it be possible that she snuck out to see her friends? Or a boyfriend?" She gently asks. He shakes his head vehmently. "Okay, Mister....?" she trails off expectantly waiting for him to fill in the blank.
"Jackson. Tom Jackson. My daughters name is Melissa. My wife and I have called all her friends and none of them have seen her." He supplies. Masters nods and looks up to see Wilkins making his way to them. "Where is your wife now?" she asks. Abe comes back and hands Tom a paper cup of water, standing back to make room for the Chief.
"She's at home. In case Melissa comes back." He takes a drink of water and collapses back into his chair, visibily trying not to sob. The crowd of towns people have gathered around and were raptly listening. Wilkins pulls up another chair and takes a seat, leaning forward with his arms resting on his knees.
"How long has it been since you discovered she was missing, Tom?"
"About 8 hours." Taylor and Wilkins share a look before turning their attention back to the missing girls father.
"Legally we can't consider her a missing person until she's been missing for 48 hours. But with everything that's been happening, I'll send out a unit to canvas your neighborhood. I'll need a list of her friends. Does she have a boyfriend?" Tom shakes his head no at the last part and takes the notebook and pen Taylor hands him and begins writing down names. "I just know they've taken her Chief. She wouldn't run off like this! Melissa is a good girl, gets good grades in school. She just received a full ride scholorships to Boulder."
"Who's taken her, Mr. Jackson?" Taylor questions. He looks up at her then and the fear in his brown eyes nearly chokes her.
"Whatever's been taking everyone else." He says softly and looses the battle against the sobs racking his body.
"You see! It is aliens!"
"No it's the government! We're all the time seeing military vehicles passing through here but never coming back. I'm telling you they're doing something up in those mountains and their taking our relatives to experiment on!" Another voice shouts, causing everyone else to start shouting back and forth about what could be kidnapping their family members. Wilkins brings his hand up and rakes it through his salt and pepper hair, glancing over at Taylor and Abe he says quietly.
"We're loosing control. If this keeps up, we're going to have a riot on our hands." He stands up and begins trying to quiet the angry towns people when Tom reaches out and grasps his arm. "Chief. We saw the light." he says frantically. "That's why I went up to check on her. There was this bright light that lit up outside our house, one second it was like someone switched the sun on outside my house the next it was dark again. And now she's gone!" Upon hearing this, a deathly quiet decsends on the gathered people. Taylor could almost smell the fear rolling off the people. The abductions had never happened in town before, those who had been taken had always been outside it's borders. Making people believe that as long as you were in city limits you were safe; it was a frightening shock to realize just how wrong they all were. Taylor glanced at Chief Ron Wilkins noticing his usually dark complexion was now ashen as he too experienced the same jolt of fear that held everyone else immobile. She returned her attention to Tom Jackson who seemed to be fascinated with the palms of his hands. Frowning, Masters reached out and grasped his hand waiting untill he looked up at her.
"Did you see where the light came from?" She asked gently. He shook his head, drawing in a sharp breath.
"No. It was just....everywhere all at once. Then it was gone." He whispered, his voice cracking. Taylor leaned back in her chair, like everyone else she was stunned. The abductors, whoever they were, were escalating. If they were taking people inside Salida, then they felt confident they couldn't be caught. Or stopped. But who were they? How could they just walk in to someone's house, take their child, then disappear without a trace? The only sign they were even there being that damned light. What the hell was going on? Taylor shook her head to clear it and leaned over to Wilkins.
"We need to get these people back to their homes." He nodded almost absently, then stood up drawing everyone's attention.
"Ladies and gentlement. Please, return to your homes. Let us do our jobs. I understand you're concerns, but this panic isn't helping us. If you want to help then join the search teams that are already out there." Silently, the towns people left. Too shocked and scared to really argue. Their town was no longer safe, they now had more pressing concerns than screaming at the police. They needed to protect their homes and families from whatever was plagueing their town.
After the last townie exited the building, Wilkins turned back to Masters, motioning her and Johntson to follow him, he went to his office. Taking a seat behind his desk, he dropped his head into his hands. Ron Wilkins had been Chief of Salida for over 10 years, he was a big man, tall and solid. People instinctively trusted his easy smile and confident manner. His officers trusted his instincts and leadership, he was proud of what he had done in his career. Crime was nearly none existent in this sleepy little town, there hadn't been a murder in nearly 20 years. So these mass disappearences rocked the community to it's core. Old, young, male, female, black, white. It didn't seem to matter, anyone could be taken. It was almost like they were being collected. Leaning back in his chair with a heavy sigh he regarded his people. Masters was his best officer. He trusted her instincts as much as he trusted his own. She was logical, practical, tough, and intelligent. He knew without a doubt that she would one day, probably soon, be sitting in his chair. The fact that she was beautiful was almost a secondary thought when faced with her intense focus and sharp mind. Johnston, though young; being only a year out of the academy, was cut from the same cloth. He was still naieve and idealistic but the kid had potential.
"They hitting the town now." He murmured. Taylor sat in one of the chairs in front of the desk, Johnston dropping into the one next to it.
"Where are they taking them? I mean, there's nothing! Absolutely nothing!" He slammed his hand down on his desk in frustration. The two detectives shared a look at his outburst. They understood his frustration, they even shared it. But something told Taylor that whatever was happening had only just started. Something was going on, under the surface, something they couldn't see yet. There had a to be a connection somewhere, they just hadn't found it yet.
"I want you two to go ahead and knock off for the night. Go home. I don't really know what else we can do right now and you've both been on for nearly 48 hours straight." Wilkins told them as he began shuffling the papers swallowing his desk. Johnston stood up and moved towards the door.
"You don't have to tell me twice. I'm dead on my feet. I'll see you in the morning Masters." He said as he left. Taylor turned back to Ron who was staring at his desk, she could tell he wasn't really seeing it but whatever was going on in his head.
"We'll figure it out Chief. There's gotta be something that connects all these people. Some common link we're not seeing. I don't know about you but this is starting to feel orchestrated. Like they're looking for something." Wilkins nodded leaning his elbows on the desk and giving Taylor his attention.
"I was just thinking the same thing. Even though the kidnappings are random, they're too frequent and now they've moved their search or whatever it is into the town." He paused and took a deep breath, " I think it might be time to call in some help." Taylors eyes widened and she sat up a little straighter.
"The F.B.I??" She asked increduosly. Wilkins nodded, locking his gaze on her.
"This is getting too big for us to do on our own. You saw those people just now. They're panicking, and before you know it that panic will turn to anger. Then we'll have a whole new mess on our hands. If we bring in the FBI it will show them that we're doing everything we possibly can. Let the Feds deal with any mobs or rioting this could erupt into." Taylor was a bit taken aback by his reasoning, it sounded almost cold to her. But she couldn't deny the logic, the FBI were better equiped to handle this sort of thing, she just hated the thought of being pushed aside and left out of the loop on what she considered her case.
"Whatever you decide, Chief. I want to be apart of it. Make me a liason if you have too, I'm not ready to just hand this off." She stood up and moved to stand directly in front of his desk. "I have to see this one through, Ron. I don't know why. I just do." She tried to explain. He nodded, he got it, he'd had a few cases like that himself during his career. Sometimes a case just grabbed you and refused to let go, something about it pulled at you, haunted you.
"I'll see to it, Taylor. Now go home, get some rest. We'll start fresh in the morning. I'll let you know what I find out from the Feds." He turned back to his paperwork. Masters heisitated for a moment then turned and left. He was right, she was dog tired. She went to the locker room and grabbed her stuff on her way out. Not stopping to talk to anyone, she didn't even acknowledge those who greeted her. Her mind running through everything they knew, all the evidence or lack there of. Her body, acting almost indepenently of her mind, took her to her car then drove her home. The next thing she knew she was standing under the shower letting the hot water pound at her tired muscles. She stood there for long minutes, her mind falling into that quiet numb place as exhaustion stole over her. She finished washing up, then got out and dried herself off. Dressing in comfortable black pajama bottoms and matching tank top she shuffled into the kitchen, opening the fridge she stared blankly at it's contents before shutting the door. Looking through the cupboards didn't supply anything that seemed appetizing either, so she simply made herself a bowl of cereal and sat on the couch in her living room aimlessly channel surfing. Coming across CNN she stopped. They were doing a special on the war in Ahfganistan.
She set her bowl on the coffee table and curled up on the couch to watch. She could feel her eyes getting heavier and she caught herself nodding off a time or two. She must have drifted off because the next thing she was aware of was something shining in her eyes, sitting up she rubbed her face and looked around. She snapped instantly awake when she saw that her house was flooded with light. It seemed to be coming from everywhere all at once. Jumping up she turned in a quick circle trying to determine the source when she heard a loud roaring sound. She spun to the living room windows and the sound grew louder. It kept growing until it was unbearablely loud, making her ears feel like they were going to start bleeding from the force of the noise. Clasping her hands to her ears she screamed in pain as she dropped to her knees.