“They’re going to launch the ship soon, Alex. Very soon. You should come with us.”
“Oh, everything’s all right with the aliens? That’s good to hear. Listen, it’s really loud in here, can I switch over to texting you?”
“Y-yeah, sure.” It took me a minute to figure out why she felt like she couldn’t have this conversation in front of the President and her staff, but I realized that announcing the news that their allies were leaving might not be the best idea right now. My tablet chirped.
A.KING: I’m in a helicopter with five other people, one of whom is the President. Hearing that the aliens are leaving is not something that is going to go over well right now.
D.JACKSON: I figured that out. I’m a little slow on the uptake, princess, but I ain’t stupid. Listen, how are you holding up?
A.KING: I’m…I don’t know, David. I’m spread thin. Too little butter on too much bread. I’m sad, angry, depressed, and seething. I haven’t wanted to wring someone’s neck so badly since Turuk tried to take over the ship.
D.JACKSON: I can only imagine, sister. You’re a goddamn warrior and when this is over I’m going to talk to Ka’thak about that. Speaking of the captain, you have a berth.
A.KING: Christ, that’s good to hear. I thought they wouldn’t mind me coming along but it’s a relief to have it in writing. I’ll think about it.
D.JACKSON: You’ll think about it? What?
A.KING: The President and her people need me. Like you, I have a duty here.
D.JACKSON: Lady, are you insane? These people have done nothing but use and abuse you since the start and you’re thinking
My fingers hovered over the ‘send’ key. As much as I wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her, was this really any different than how I felt? Duty was duty after all.
D.JACKSON: Humanity is toast. Don’t think too long. We’re launching. Today.
A.KING: …fuck. Hang on. Don’t say anything, got me?
Before I had time to respond, my tablet rang again. I hit accept and as instructed, kept my mouth shut. Alex was still holding the tablet angled towards her but she was looking over the camera.
“I’m sorry, ma’am, I didn’t mean to alarm you. Nothing is wrong, I just got a surprise from Lt. Colonel Jackson. He informs me that the alien ship will launch today. They understandably have concerns that whoever rigged the ship to blow could infiltrate theirs.”
“I expected as much.” I heard the President say faintly. “I can’t say I blame them.” Though I couldn’t see her face, she sounded exhausted too. “You’re certainly free to go, Doctor King. I don’t think I have anything more to ask of you.”
Alex pursed her lips. “Thank you, ma’am, but I’m staying where I am for the moment. We have a job to do.”
I ended the call and typed out one last message to her.
D.JACKSON: We’ll be in orbit for a day or two, so you’ve got a little bit of wiggle room. The sooner you can tell me what you’re doing, the better. Don’t die for these people Alex, you are worth so much more than that. Check in with me as soon as you can.
26
Alexandra
A day. I had a single day to make the biggest decision of my life. Less than a day, if David was telling me the whole story. I clenched my stomach and tried to slow my breathing as a wave of panic raced through me. I told myself to focus on the task at hand. There would be time to figure out the rest later. As the helicopter came in view of the ruined ship my jaw dropped. What I saw took the air from my lungs.
It looked like a nuclear bomb had gone off. There were still large pieces of the hull intact but the site looked as if a giant had slammed a hammer down. Bits and pieces of the engines, cabins, and instruments lay scattered pell-mell. Every person in the helicopter left their seats to stare at the wreckage. One of the Secret Service guys accompanying us crossed himself.
I sat back down and rubbed the bridge of my nose. Whereas we had ample time before, the clock had run out. I had a ticket off the planet, but was it worth trying for when David and I would be the only two humans left alive in the universe? What did that mean for the continuance of the species? I had decided years ago that I wasn’t going to have children. I didn’t love the idea of being forced to, especially with a man I barely knew.
The President jumped a little as her cell phone rang.
“Hello? Oh, Mr. Cady! I was told to expect a call from you.” Hearing that name snapped me back to the present. Wasn’t that the name of Proctor’s head of security? Why was he calling the President of the United States? The better question is, where the hells did he get the…ah. Forwarded call. I resisted the urge to try and contact Jackson again. After his last brush with AstroTech executives, I was worried that he’d grab the first shuttle out and come down here with guns blazing.
“You believe you’ve isolated how this happened?” She looked at me questioningly. I shook my head. No, I hadn’t heard anything from the aliens about this. “Yes, of course, we can come by. Tracking down and punishing the person responsible for this will at least provide some closure for the country, and the world.”
Yeah, right. They’d have to put on one hell of a show to make up for the fact that the entire species was now doomed.
“Ma’am, I don’t know if this is the best idea.” One of the Secret Service men spoke up. “We’re too small a crew to ensure your safety properly. I don’t like it.”
The look he got would have made a lesser man shrink but the hulking officer managed to keep looking at the President while she glared at him. “Call some backup, then,” she insisted, her voice deadly calm.
“…yes, ma’am,” the Secret Service man replied. He pressed the earpiece in his ear and spoke to someone on the radio.
I lifted my tablet again to studiously peer at the day’s news articles. The headlines were dominated with the destruction of the ship after the engine test. The commentary of the articles was fairly predictable. Fuck it all, the world is ending. Plenty of criticism towards the president and the armed forces. No mention of the men and women who had died horrifically trying to protect humanity’s last chance at survival. Why would there be?
The flight to AstroTech headquarters wasn’t terribly long but the time stretched out thanks to the utter silence that permeated the helicopter. When we came in sight of the helicopter pad I spotted the man I assumed was Cady standing with a group of armed guards. A chill ran down my spine. Something was most definitely wrong here. Even if I didn’t know anything else about this man, it wasn’t a good sign when someone showed up to a meeting with the President surrounded by men with guns. The Secret Service men tensed but made no move to deviate the helicopter from its path. I thought I saw one or two of the men press where their weapons were holstered as if reassuring themselves that they were still armed. I cursed my unwillingness to at least carry a weapon. If the big burly guys were worried about themselves, I was about to be in for a very bad time.
The helicopter landed and I sat motionless as the rotors wound down. The President was busy scrolling through something on her phone but I couldn’t miss the tension thrumming between the rest of the occupants of the helicopter. I wanted to tell myself that it was just everyone being jumpy but at this point who knew what could be waiting for us. One of the Secret Service people opened the door and jumped out, her hand raised in greeting. The large man who had taken inventory of his pistol moved to help the President to her feet.
She flinched as a spray of blood covered her face and arm. The man fell. I jumped to the floor of the helicopter from instinct and saw the first woman’s body sprawled across the helipad, blood pouring from a wound in her chest. I reached up and grabbed the President’s arm, slick with the Secret Service agent’s blood, and pulled her to the floor of the helicopter, covering as much of her body with my own as I could. One of Cady’s men coolly stepped into the chopper and put a bullet through the forehead of the pilot before he could reach his service weapon. When the commotion had died down, I stayed wh
ere I was, bear-hugging the President.
“You can get up, Dr. King,” a voice called from outside the helicopter. “We don’t want to hurt you. Either of you.”
“Fat fucking chance!” I called, motioning for the President to stay down.
“Come now, Alexandra.” The voice got closer now and I felt a new set of boots step into the chopper. Cady bent down almost to the floor so I could see his face. Outside of my peripheral vision, I felt the cold muzzle of a gun press against the back of my head. The sensation sent ice spreading outwards down my spine, robbing my lungs of their breath. “Don’t you think that if I wanted you dead I’d have pulled the trigger by now?” His voice was dripping with mockery, a sly smile slid his goons’ way at my heroics.
I glared at him and slowly rolled away from the President, making sure to keep my hands away from my body.
“There’s a good girl,” Cady said. I almost caught myself but he grinned as he caught the look of hatred on my face. “You go on and sit right there in that seat while we help the lady up, all right?”
I did as I was told. Before I sat down one of the armed men patted me down for weapons. When his hands lingered a little too long in a place I didn’t want them lingering, I turned my head and spit in his face. Cady guffawed.
“See that, boys? Kitty’s got claws!”
I didn’t see the blow coming before the flat of his hand connected with my cheek. I tasted metal and spat blood onto the helicopter floor as rage whipped through me. The President was on her feet now, holding onto the arm of one of the men for support. She looked like she was in shock. One of the men handed her a somewhat clean cloth to wipe her face with and proffered his jacket to cover the blood on her shirt. She accepted both gestures wordlessly.
“Now, Doctor,” Cady insisted, unclipping a set of handcuffs from his belt. “If you don’t mind. I’ve heard tales of your ingenuity and I’m going to need you to put these on. Any tricks, we shoot first. There won’t be any questions later.”
I nodded and turned to let him cuff my wrists. He clicked each on, tightening them down just a little bit too far. Already I could feel the blood flow leaving my fingertips. I tried to flex my hand but the metal bit into my wrists.
An armed man led the President out of the chopper, helping her step down from the platform to the helipad. Cady stripped off his jacket and put it around my shoulders, presumably to hide the cuffs. It stank of tobacco, the smell making me cough.
I promised myself that I was never going to get in another helicopter as long as I lived.
Captured again.
27
Jackson
I forgot about the world ending as I watched final preparations being made for launch. Civilians had been ordered back to their rooms and I high-fived a few kids as they made their way down the hall to join their parents.
I was going to space! I couldn’t shake my grin. Ever since I was small I had wanted to fly into space, and when I didn’t make the cut for the astronaut training program it was the biggest disappointment of my life. All things considered, this more than made up for it. When everything was finalized, Ka’thak met me in a corridor.
“First time going into orbit for you, isn’t it?” He was smiling too—I didn’t know if it was relief to be finally getting away from Earth or amusement at my glee.
“Yes, sir.”
“Should be fun for you then. Would you like to come up to the bridge and watch the launch from there?”
“Hell yes, sir.”
He laughed. “Come on, then.”
I had spent a good amount of time on the bridge before but this was a whole different situation. Crew sat at every station in full uniform. The chamber had been cleaned within an inch of its life—every inch of the place looked brand new. I always found that you could gauge the mood of a group of soldiers by how put together the unit and their environment was. It was clear that finally getting off the planet had inspired the soldiers.
I walked through the bridge, touching each soldier on the shoulder as I went. Ka’thak motioned me over to a seat behind his station and told me to buckle in. The ship rumbled as the engines fired up and I was a little surprised to feel some anxiety. I put my hands onto the gel-like cushion and curled and uncurled my fingers to ease the tension. I felt the familiar push of G forces as the ship lifted from the ground. If I was expecting less of a drag because of the size of the craft, I was dead wrong. As we ascended it felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest. None of the other soldiers even blinked an eye. Physiology, I supposed.
A couple of minutes in, Ka’thak glanced back at me from his station and pressed his lips together, holding back a laugh. “You going to make it over there, Jackson?”
I pried my hand away from my seat and shot him the finger, my arm getting too heavy to hold as soon as I made the gesture. He laughed and turned back to his station. On one of the monitors there was an external view from the top of the bridge, I watched as sky gave way to clouds, and clouds gave way to black. In less than ten minutes, we were in orbit. I felt the crushing weight of our acceleration disappear and started to float underneath the seatbelt.
“Problem, little brother?” I heard, then turned. I noticed that every alien had unbuckled themselves and was now standing. Standing, not floating.
“How…?” I asked.
The soldier tapped her ankles. I noticed that she was wearing two thin silver bangles around the thinnest part of her legs, much like I had seen the prime minister and Ka’thak wearing before. The rest of them were as well, differently colored. Ka’thak wore gold ones. “Magnets, short stack.” She chuckled.
“We have gravity plating in the decks and on certain external areas of the hull but they draw a lot of power. We’ll turn them on when we officially leave Earth’s orbit but for now, we’ll activate these to conserve the energy,” Ka’thak explained. “I’ll send someone to get a set for you. Our physiology isn’t so different that they won’t fit. They might just feel a little strange.”
“Thank you, sir,” I said. I couldn’t help unbuckling and laughed nervously as I lifted off the floor. I was careful to keep a hand on the seatbelt so I didn’t go floating into the middle of the room.
Kuru, a soldier who I had worked with on many missions before, walked over to me. “You can let go,” she said. “I promise I won’t let you float away.” She smiled. I wasn’t feeling particularly keen on the possibility but there wasn’t likely to be another chance for me to do this so…I let go.
And immediately regretted my choice. My brain which was attuned to experiencing rapid shifts in orientation under pressure lost it and my lunch threatened to make a sudden reappearance. Very unfortunately for me, this did not go unnoticed.
“Hey, check it out! Jackson’s turning into one of us after all!” Kuru crowed. “You look a little green there, Jackson!”
I shut my eyes and swallowed hard. My mouth tasted of acid and bile but I managed to keep my lunch in my stomach. Kuru switched off her magnets and pushed gently off the floor to somersault in the air in front of me.
“What’s the matter, little human? Space a little too much for you?” She laughed. Her tail almost hit me in the face.
“No. I’m fine,” I conveyed through gritted teeth.
“Oh, give the human a break, will ya?” an officer called. “Get the man some medicine.”
A soldier returned minutes later with something that reminded me of the patches they gave baby pilots to not vomit on the planes. I slapped it on my neck and immediately started feeling better. The soldier also handed me a set of magnetic anklets. I slapped them on and my feet were immediately pulled toward the floor.
I occupied myself with dusting my uniform off while I waited for my mind and ears to get used to the lack of gravity. Ka’thak was calling out orders, calling for the status of the ship’s orbit, and ensuring that there was no debris that would impact us. He ordered a full diagnostic of the ship and its systems and sent a team of two soldiers to run a fine-toot
hed comb over the interstellar drive—the crucial component that would transport us between star systems. An extremely smart idea, given that we hadn’t had time to go over everything before launch.
“Sir,” I stood behind him and waited for him to finish his current task.
“Yes?”
“Sir, is there some way I could contact Alexandra? She’d want to see this—the view of Earth from space.”
“Sure. Down the hall, you’ll find a communications hub. You should be able to connect your phone to it and get a message through.”
I walked down the hall towards the communications room. The anklets they had me strap on were strange. They didn’t cement my feet to the floor but as I lifted each leg it felt like someone was tugging my foot back down. It took me a few steps to get the hang of it without sounding like I was an elephant stomping down the hall.
The communications room was a tech-head’s dream. This wasn’t my area of expertise, but even I could recognize that this place had all the toys. I found a cord that fit the port of my phone and plugged it in. A touchscreen terminal popped up in front of me that mirrored my phone’s display. I figured that the process couldn’t be too complicated so I brought up my contacts and tapped Alexandra’s name. The system initialized, stating that the laser array was searching for a suitable cellular satellite. It apparently found one because seconds later the screen showed Alex’s face and I heard a dial tone.
The phone went directly to voicemail. That was weird. Alex never turned her phone off. I was just talking to her. I disconnected from the communications array and made my way back to the command center.
“How is she?” Ka’thak stepped away from his station when I walked in.
Exodus Page 12