The Menagerie 2 (Eden) Read Online Free PDF

recorded.”
    Then perhaps another time , she considered.
    Before leaving the room she tried to remember their designs of delicate cursive that was truly archaic, and then left the area, hunkering down to enter a doorway that was hardly made for a person of her height.
    #
     
    The incline was slight as O’Connell led them forward. Like elsewhere, the walls were dark and oily in appearance but dry to the touch. The walkway was made of an alien composite that resembled metal grating. The latticework gave off a green phosphorescent glow that lit the way.
    “The area we are about to enter,” O’Connell began, “is under the tightest security. You do the job you’ve been tasked to do and say nothing unless it’s to me or to the people who sit behind a bigger desk than mine. And this goes without question.”
    At the end of the tunnel an aura of white light appeared from the edges of the archway, beyond that—a pristine white room. The textured walls were gone, the ceilings here high.
    When Alyssa entered the area a massive form stood before her, intrusive and menacing with eyes that were blood red, no pupils, staring at her from a head that was bonelike and armored. Its jaw was hinged and protruding, showcasing a bottom row of conical-shaped teeth that were honed to a razor’s sharpness. And its musculature was framed by an exoskeleton that outlined every curve and fiber of muscle, its body completely armored.
    Alyssa brought a hand to her chest and felt a sudden hitch in the beat of her heart—a misfire as the creature never took its eyes off her.
    Savage grabbed her to steady her balance.
    “It’s all right, Ms. Moore,” said O’Connell. “It’s not alive.”
    Whatever it was it was a humanoid, a bipedal form about eight feet in height, a bred warrior of its race.
    The alien hominid was standing inside a glass-less display case, the creature unmoving. Beyond it were rows upon rows of display cases of different sizes and shapes to accommodate their inhabitants, the rows stretching the length of the entire room which was the distance of an aircraft carrier from end to end.
    O’Connell raised his hand toward the cases. “Welcome to the Menagerie,” he said.
    Welcome.
     

 
     
     
    CHAPTER SIX
     
     
     
    The humanoid stood as still as a Grecian statue within its closure, the creature having been perfectly preserved over time.
    Its body was sexless and covered completely by a bony exoskeleton that detailed every muscular attribute akin to the features of a bodybuilder. Its head was scale-like in its texture, with thick bony protrusions for brows and a hinged jaw line. Its wide shoulders and massive chest were heavily armored by the natural accouterments of thick bone, a birthright granted by its DNA. Its right forearm was a formidable weapon, the armor bearing natural spikes that were long and sharp and deadly. Its right forearm was thicker and more massive, more like an inborn shield to ward off blows. This creature, by design, was born to be a fighter of its race.
    O’Connell circled the isolation chamber with his hands clasped behind the small of his back. “This is just one of many perfectly preserved specimens,” he commented.
    Alyssa reached out to touch it. But the closer her hand got to the creature the more resistance she encountered, the opposition becoming too great until a force repelled her hand. “I don’t understand,” she said. “There’s no glass panel separating us. I should be able to touch it. But something’s holding me back.”
    O’Connell stepped forward and looked into the creature’s pupil-less eyes that contained no white. “The third rule of Newton’s Law of Motion,” he stated. “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. There is an obvious force field that we cannot see, touch, smell or sense in any way. But it exists.” O’Connell brought his hand up to touch the hominid, only for his hand to reach so far before it was unable to reach any