“Couldn’t reach her. It’s strange, she never turns her phone off.”
Ka’thak waved a dismissive hand. “I’m sure she’s trying to handle the crisis on the surface as best she can. It makes sense that her phone would be busy, or off.”
I took my phone back out of my pocket to check for any texts and my screen exploded with notifications. I dismissed them all except for the last one. I blinked my eyes and read the headline twice. I thought I must have been mistaken.
The President had been kidnapped.
I must have made a noise because Ka’thak turned.
“What’s happened?”
I handed him the phone. He read the article that I had pulled up and cursed softly.
“I’m glad we took off when we did, then,” he said. “I suspected that things were going to get worse in your country, and quickly. Despite the animosity and strife between our peoples, I liked her. She was young but she made every effort to manage the situation as well as she could.”
I appreciated the sentiment. Even though the alien leader had everything demanded of him by the American government it was admirable that he could recognize and voice respect for a fellow head of state.
“And Dr. King? Is she alive?”
Ice filled my stomach. In reacting to the news of the President’s kidnapping I had forgotten her for a moment.
“I don’t know,” I breathed.
“I owe the doctor a great debt. The least I can do is repay it. Attention!” He turned to address the chamber as a whole. “The American President has gone missing. We can assume that Dr. Alexandra King is with her.” A few gasps and murmurs were heard. Alex was dear to many of us, and news of her disappearance was disturbing. “You will scan the planet for them and once found, we will send a shuttle to retrieve them.”
“Yes sir!” the assembled officers shouted.
I sat and set in search of every piece of information I could find. The President had last been seen circling the site of the ruined human ship in a military helicopter, but there was no information about where they had landed—or if they had at all.
As we orbited, I watched flashes of cameras from around the globe flicker past on screens. We were fortunate enough to have the capability to access everything without serious encryption attached to it. Traffic cameras, webcams, security cameras, even the cameras of phones and tablets were open to our search. It was incredible to see. I knew that they were running facial recognition through all of these, but it ran in the background. It would only stop the clip if it thought it recognized someone.
While I waited for Alex’s face to appear, thousands of moments of human existence flashed before me. I saw men fighting outside a bar in London. A woman clutching her baby and sobbing as she tried to comfort the crying child in Malawi. Riots with crowds of people marching towards the government buildings in Paris. A man somewhere in America picking up a shotgun only to raise it to his mouth. I shuddered. It was one thing to know that the world was ending. Quite another one to see it.
“Energy signatures,” I said aloud.
“Hm?” Ka’thak was watching the monitors in the command center. He looked at me, sadness clear in his eyes. The tragedy of it all affected him too.
“The same way we found the enemy soldiers. If they’re being held by Cady and his people, shouldn’t we be able to find where they are now?”
“It’s not the worst idea. I can’t say that I want to keep watching humans suffer, anyway,” he said. “I don't think that we’ll be able to pick up the weapons as well if they’re powered down, but it will be far easier to see them from orbit than it was on the ground.”
He tapped some keys on the keyboard in front of him and the camera feeds were replaced with wireframe maps. Ka’thak scrolled to center the scan over Florida and we were almost blinded by the huge spot that lit up.
“What the hells is that?” I asked. Whatever it was, it was massive.
“It can’t be,” Ka’thak exclaimed. He refreshed the image and the bright spot bloomed anew, pulsing and withdrawing like a living thing.
“It’s another ship.”
28
Alexandra
I was getting really sick of the Bond villain routine. The President and I had been blindfolded and led about a quarter-mile away from the helipad. When the coverings were taken off our heads we were in such a familiar setting that I hoped for a moment that our captors had been interrupted. We had been placed in a nondescript room on the ship. I sat in a spartan steel chair and the President sat across the room from me. Cameras had been set up to face each of us. The red light blinked on the camcorder like a signal in the dim room. I was half expecting a henchman to wheel in with a tray of instruments of torture. All that was missing was the dripping pipes.
“It’s all right, Dr. King. I’ve been trained well for this situation,” the President said. “I’ll handle this.”
I wanted to shout at her that she hadn’t. No one had trained for this situation. There was no ‘handling’ this. This situation was beyond fucked and I was absolutely sick of this woman pretending that she had a grasp on the situation while she begged Jackson and me for our help. My sympathy for her position ran out about the time she decided that only the smart survived.
What we got was worse than any henchman. A man entered the room and sat himself down in a chair between us. I figured out who he was before he opened his mouth. Versace suit, expensive glasses, and cold, dead shark’s eyes. I would have preferred the mindless goon.
“Jesse Proctor,” the man said, extending his hand. I rolled my eyes and lifted my shackled wrists. He smirked and turned to the President. She regarded him coolly but didn’t move. “Fair enough. I do apologize for the rough treatment, ladies. Mr. Cady can be a little overzealous in his actions.”
I turned away from Proctor and stared at the wall. I sighed, waiting for him to get on with it.
“Why…how?” The President asked. “How were you able to keep this from us? From everyone?”
“Your people saw fit to provide me with an exceptional amount of funding. I’m a businessman. Why would I waste money when I could use it to fund my own insurance?”
“Why the hell would you blow up the other ship?” I whipped my head back towards him. “You could have saved twice as many people, asshole.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “It’s quite simple Dr. King. If there were two ships, I’d have twice as many people to get in the way. I will be establishing a new world order, after all, and I thought I’d rid myself of one more hindrance. One ship, one chance to survive—well, it means that I’ll have an easy time controlling the fate of the remainder of the human race.” He took his glasses off to clean them with a cloth. When he replaced them his eyes shone unnaturally.
Sociopath. The word leapt to my mind. Sociopath with psychopathic tendencies. Delusional to boot. I started looking for the door. It was time to figure out an exit. He planned to rule over the rest of the species. Yikes. The problem with people like this was that they were merciless. Proctor would be ready to kill and he wouldn’t think twice about it.
“You can’t possibly think that you’re going to take off from this planet unharmed,” the President said. She was shivering a little. Shock setting in. If Proctor was going to keep us hostage he should have been paying more attention to the health of his captives. I was starting to feel not so hot myself.
“We’ll launch tonight. Those who have served me well will get to leave this world and begin anew in the stars.”
I snorted and Proctor glared at me for an instant, but only for a fraction of a second. His face re-arranged itself into a mask of indifference. Bullseye.
“Why kidnap me then?” the President asked. “If you’ve already got a plan, why bother killing my people? Why take the social worker?”
“You’re my guarantee. As we’re finishing our preparations for launch the ship could be vulnerable. Your soldiers have already proven that they can take one of these ships down without m
uch effort. I’d certainly hate for them to mobilize what’s left of their forces and get in the way. With the President on board, it’s highly unlikely they’ll be tempted to bring it down.” He paused, tip of the tongue caught between his teeth. “You’re right though, the social worker is extraneous.”
“You won’t hurt her,” The President sneered. Her fists were clenched at her sides. I caught her eyes and shook my head imperceptibly. Don’t piss him off.
“Oh, won’t I?” Proctor said, sliding his chair towards me. He reached behind his waist and pulled out a pistol. He made a show of examining the gun, polishing the metal with a handkerchief from his pocket. He held the gun in front of him as if to check the sight. “A shame how easy it is for your fingers into slip on the trigger of one of these.”
“You understand that our people will not negotiate with you, right? You’re a terrorist, Jesse. You’re finished.”
“Quite all right,” Proctor replied. “I’m not interested in negotiating. I intend to cause just enough confusion that they won’t decide on a course of action before we make it to orbit.” He continued to finger the gun, swinging the barrel idly back and forth. I concentrated on keeping my breathing even.
Fuck. The final piece of the puzzle slid into place. This was the reason for it all. The earlier attempts to kidnap dignitaries, the offensive to attack the original ship, even the explosion. I couldn’t believe that we missed it. This wasn’t something that most sane people did. Scratch that, no sane person did this. Proctor had kept himself purposefully sequestered from it all. No one questioned the zillionaire CEO trying to keep things focused on the construction site.
“I sincerely regret that we weren’t able to take down the aliens’ ship. We wouldn’t be in this position without them but they are an abomination. Disgusting creatures. I imagine they’ll be headed on their way. After all, it was all well and good to play live and let live when they were stuck here but now things have changed. If nothing else, we have them matched in weaponry. It would be to their advantage to let things lie. For the survival of both our species. Plus, it would seem that their leadership has taken an interest in Dr. King here.” He paused to look me up and down, slowly. “Though I cannot imagine why, but given their affection toward her I doubt they’ll fire on this ship with her aboard. Perhaps I’ll keep her around after all.”
A wave of fury exploded in my chest. Turuk’s words echoed in my mind. Not worthy to live. I gritted my teeth and promised myself that if I ever had the chance that I would put a bullet through this bastard’s brain just like I did Turuk’s. The problem was that he was right. We already lost a good portion of the species with more to die very soon. Taking the President was the ultimate hostage.
As he droned, I took stock of my surroundings. If they had copied the alien ship bolt for bolt this was a maintenance room much like the one Turuk had held me in. That meant that the door led to a hallway which meant that if I managed to get past Proctor I would find myself in an enclosed space where I wasn’t likely to make it out alive. I had to figure out something quickly because as soon as the ship lifted off, there was no need for Proctor to keep us alive. Never let them take you to the second location. I was about to be taken to the third. The window for me to see life after Earth was closing quickly.
29
Jackson
“Sir. We have to find them.”
“David,” Ka’thak responded softly. “I know she’s your friend, but you have to understand that my duty is to our people. I have already sacrificed so much for the humans. I’ve put everyone in unimaginable danger. I love you my brother, but you cannot ask me to do anything more. We must go. I am sorry.” He turned to walk away.
“If it wasn’t for her, you wouldn’t be alive.” The sentence was out of my mouth before I could stop myself. Ka’thak stopped, his shoulders tensing. A low growl sounded from his throat.
“That’s not fair, Jackson,” he said. He turned.
“All your people would be dead, too.” I was aghast at what I was saying. Every nerve in my body screamed for me to shut the hell up. You never spoke to your commanding officer like this. Ever.
“Don’t you mean our people?” There was a distinctive edge to his voice and I rooted my feet to the floor as I fought the urge to back away.
“Sir, yes sir. Our people. No, you don’t owe humanity anything. I’m the last person who has the right to ask you for anything, If anything, I still owe a debt to you.” Shit, I had finally fucked it up this time.
“That you do.” He paused. “But I would be remiss if I let her die at the hands of criminals. To do so would be to dishonor all that she has done for us.”
“I agree, sir.”
“I must consult the council. Ultimately the decision does not rest solely with me.”
“I understand.”
He left the bridge and I sat back down. I would need a team. Luckily, I already had who I wanted to take with me in mind.
Ka’thak returned sometime later. “You can take two soldiers and one stealth shuttle. You get five hours. If you aren’t back by then, we will leave. I’m very sorry, my friend. This is the best I can do.”
“Thank you, sir.” I kept my gaze down. I knew that what I was asking for was completely unreasonable. My debt was already lifelong. I could never repay this. “I need to go make a call.”
As I walked down the hall, exhaustion settled over me. For the last half-year, I had held it together. Now that we were so close to escape, we were facing yet another enemy. I went back into the communications hub where a soldier was busy speaking to someone else on the ship. I inclined my head and waited for him to finish. As I stood, I racked my mind as to who exactly I was going to call. I was not favored among a lot of the military brass at this point. Joining Ka’thak’s forces was not looked upon favorably by some of the more conservative generals.
The only person I could think of was Commander Oladeru. If he was even alive. The soldier finished his call and nodded to me as he left. I plugged my phone back into the communications interface and took a deep breath. This was the longest of long shots.
“…Jackson?” Oladeru’s face was impassive. “You’re alive.”
“Yes sir, I am.”
“What do you want?”
“Have you received any communication from Jesse Proctor?” I watched as his lips tightened.
“Yes. He informs us that he has the President hostage. What about it?”
“We have reason to believe that she is being held on Proctor’s ship.” I could tell that this wasn’t the news he wanted to hear.
“And how did you know this?”
“It’s a long story.” I wished I could tell him that I had confirmed anything. I had no direct reports, no evidence, not even a goddamned ransom note.
“I’ve got time.” He crossed his arms.
“Proctor built another ship. The fucker cut corners with the funding and knowing that he was going to blow the original ship sky high, built himself a goddamn lifeboat. He’s handpicked his own to make it off the Earth. The same men who executed the attacks with the beam cannons.”
Oladeru was silent for a long moment as he digested what I’d told him.
“What the fuck do you want me to do, Jackson?” he sighed. “Things are over. Humanity is dead. The President is lost, or killed. The best I can do for you is blow the ship. I’ve still got a small group of people but I should be able to get a bird in the air and take it down. Hell, I’ll fly it myself.”
“Alex is with her,” I said.
“The know it all? Of course, she got herself in the middle of this. Tell me you don’t think that’s a reason I shouldn’t shoot it down.”
I snorted. “I understand sir, but given that she’s the reason any of us are still alive, I would appreciate it if you’d not kill her.”
“For you, Jackson, I'll try. I can’t promise if she gets in the way that nothing will happen to her, but I can try. What do you need?”
“A distraction.
I’m on my way with our finest. All I need from you is to keep those motherfuckers busy until we can get inside. We’ll take care of it from there.”
“If we live through this, you owe me, asshole.” Oladeru smiled, his age showing. His eyes were bloodshot and I could see that his hair had gone a lot more grey in the months since the ship had been shot down.
“Hell yeah, man. You know I do. I’ll make good on it.
Oladeru sighed, then seemed to gather his resolve. “I can’t give you much, but I’ll give you everything I’ve got. They’ll make some noise. Make it count.”
30
Alexandra
The ground shook and I exchanged a glance with the President.
“Fear not, we’re simply moving upwards. We’re underground.”
Upwards was good. Upwards meant that there was a way out where we weren’t trapped in a facility manned by Proctor’s men. This gave me hope, but not too much. I still had to fight my way through a ship full of armed men with a very compelling reason to shoot me.
“Let us go, Jesse. Let us go and give us the ship. I can promise you that you will walk out of here. Full amnesty,” the President said.
“No thanks,” Proctor replied, smirking. “Amnesty doesn’t do me a whole lot of good on a dying world. Trust me, Madam President. I know people. They won’t touch the ship with you on it.” He reached behind his neck to pull an earbud into his ear.
“Get me a connection to the United States military,” he said and paused. “Ah, Commander Oladeru? Am I to understand that you are the remaining ranking officer in charge? Fantastic. I understand that you’ve already surmised where the President is?” He paused. “Do kindly watch your language, sir. I’d appreciate a gentler tone and more sophisticated vocabulary. Thank you. Now. You’ll be staying at least five hundred meters away from my launchpad. Any closer—if any of your soldiers, if a single one sets foot a single inch closer, your President will be the first to make it off the planet. Permanently. The social worker will follow her.”
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