Earthborn Alliance

by Matthew DeVore

  Footsteps echoing through the halls ripped his attention back to the front. He raised his rifle and waited. Whoever it was, they were certainly in a hurry.

  Valaan rounded the corner up ahead, and Ethan lowered his weapon.

  Allison stepped into the hallway, “What’s the situation?”

  “We’re safe for now, but we need to abandon this location, and quickly,” Valaan replied.

  Ethan turned around to relay the news, but the women were already on it. Needa had scooped up her youngest and prodded Greg and Susan forward. “I’ll grab our essentials,” she said.

  Valaan stood at Ethan’s side. “Good. Everyone meet in the underground as quickly as you can.”

  “Rayland, can you help me please?” Trisha asked her son.

  He swung his rifle over his shoulder and ran to her side.

  Ethan faced Valaan. “Aleena?”

  “She’s already gathering her things. You should do the same.”

  Ethan nodded. Taking Allison’s hand, the two ran to their room.

  “Don’t forget to grab the pillows,” Allison told him.

  “Pillows? Why do you want to bring pillows?” he asked.

  “Because they’re comfortable, and who knows where we’ll sleep next.”

  Ethan thought about it for a second. “I never would’ve thought of that, but I love it.”

  “That’s why you keep me around,” Allison teased.

  They threw all their clothes into an old duffel bag Allison had found in the closet the previous night. Ethan pulled two pillows off the four-poster bed and stopped for a minute, staring at it.

  “What’s wrong?” Allison asked.

  “Oh, nothing. I was just thinking how much I’ll miss this place. It’s not every day you get to live in a mansion.”

  “Sure beats the cave floor,” Allison said, intertwining her fingers with Ethan’s.

  He thought back to the dark, tiny alcove he’d called home not all that long ago. Just on the other side of the far wall, Aleena had been sleeping in a hidden stasis chamber the whole time.

  “Here, I’ll take the pillows.” Gently pulling them from his grip, she leaned over, turned his head with a hand, and kissed him. “We’re going to make it through this.”

  Ethan ran a hand through her long, straight brown hair and looked into her ocean-blue eyes. “We’re certainly going to try.”

  He picked the duffel bag up off the area rug and held the door open for Allison. Together, they made their way back to the underground, where they found Aleena and Valaan waiting just outside the humming ship.

  “Where are Norman and Robert?” Ethan asked.

  “Helping their families gather belongings,” Valaan answered.

  They were alone. Just the four of them. I suppose now’s as good a time as any. Ethan slipped the black phone out from his pocket. “I have something I need to tell you all, but you can’t tell any of the others.”

  “Is that what I think it is?” Aleena asked.

  “Yeah. It’s a QueSet.”

  “How’d you get that?”

  “Grant and I, um, borrowed them from the Alliance base.”

  Aleena giggled. “Sounds about right.”

  “He’s been keeping me up to speed on the war. I didn’t tell you guys because I didn’t want it to fall on you if we got caught.”

  Allison looked hurt. “You could’ve told me.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said, “but I really do think it was for the best.”

  Valaan cocked his head slightly. “So why are you telling us this now?”

  “There’s been an incident. There was an explosion, and Grant’s been injured.”

  “How bad?” Aleena asked, concern deep in her eyes.

  “It’s really bad. But the medics think he’ll live.”

  “What happened?”

  “They don’t know. All they know is an Urlowen bomb got into the barracks. It took out half the regiment.”

  “Half the regiment,” Allison exclaimed. “What about Leon, Micah, Eric—”

  “Micah and Eric are dead,” Ethan interrupted. “Leon is fine. He’s the one who told me. I don’t know about anyone else.”

  Allison’s head drooped.

  “And there’s more.”

  Before he finished, the elevator buzzed and Rayland, Trisha, and Robert filed onto the catwalk with luggage in tow.

  “We’ll talk about it later,” Ethan whispered.

  Valaan nodded. “Go ahead and put your stuff in the cabin. It’s going to be a tight squeeze for all of us, but we’ll make it work.”

  Ethan grabbed the duffel bag and the pillows.

  “Ethan, let me help,” Allison said.

  “No, it’s all right. I’ve got it, really.” He carried the items to the rear hatch and tossed the pillows up into the craft, followed by the duffel. He scaled the ladder, then shoved their stuff out of the entry toward the rear of the ship.

  Ethan waited in the cabin to help the others with their luggage. Once everyone’s things were stowed, he exited the ship and took his place between Allison and Aleena. “Everything’s ready,” he said.

  Aleena turned to him and nodded. “Good.”

  The older men were silent, simply staring at Aleena in a sort of odd reverence.

  “Who are you?” Robert asked.

  Norman shifted his weight from one foot to the other rather awkwardly.

  Robert continued. “Meghan told us who you claim to be, but I didn’t… I couldn’t believe it. Then Rayland mentioned you were friends with Red Fury. Which was preposterous, of course. She was first generation. You couldn’t possibly have survived. Only those stationed at the Arc evaded the genocide.”

  He lifted a data screen. “But I took a minute to pull up some photos from our archives while you were”—he nodded toward the open ceiling above the craft—“flying.”

  Ethan leaned in to see the picture. Standing in front of a ship that looked a lot like the one behind him, were two Elves with huge smiles on their faces.

  Aleena slowly took the pad from Robert, a tear welling up at the corner of her eye. “You have access to the central repository?”

  “Only part of it from here. But the rest is archived with the Royals,” Norman answered—in a much friendlier tone than on the drive a few days before, Ethan noted.

  He stared at the picture and watched as Aleena ran her finger down the form of a young redheaded Elf, every bit as attractive as Aleena, who was standing next to her in her shimmering green armor. The other girl’s armor matched Aleena’s in texture but was a deep red with different markings.

  “She was so happy. She’d just earned her wings,” Aleena said. “She was the best pilot in her class—way better than me. I had to take the course twice.”

  Ethan tore his eyes from the photo and glanced at Aleena. She didn’t look a single day older than when the photo was taken. “Is it?”

  Aleena sniffed and wiped a tear from her cheek. “It’s Ella.”

  “When was this taken?”

  “About a year before I went into the chamber,” Aleena said. “A week after this, she was shipped off to some supersecret location she couldn’t tell me about.”

  “It is you, then,” Robert said.

  “Of course it’s her.” Rayland sounded annoyed.

  “Well that certainly explains a few things,” Norman said.

  “How’d you survive?” Robert asked.

  Valaan took the data pad from Aleena. “Sorry, dear child, but we don’t have time for this right now.” He handed it back to Robert.

  “Right,” Aleena agreed, all semblance of sadness vanishing.

  Ethan stared at her, amazed. She was incredible. In a moment, she could push her own problems aside and switch into soldier mode. Quite frankly, he was surprised she’d let everyone see her like that at all. The only time he’d seen her cry was the night he’d first discovered his magic, in a particularly vulnerable moment.

  “I must speak to the Royals,” Aleen
a said. “I’m going to recruit every able body to our cause and send this.” She was holding a small gray cube that didn’t look all that important to Ethan.

  “And that is…?” he asked.

  She looked into his eyes. “This is our ticket to winning the war. This is the communication hub for the ship. It contains all the security protocols required to send a verified voice message.”

  Allison stepped around Ethan to get a closer look. “Do you mean we can contact the Elven home world?”

  “This is our best shot. If there’s an interstellar communication transmitter with the Royals, then yes.”

  Everyone turned to Norman and Robert, who looked at each other questioningly.

  “I don’t know of one,” Norman said.

  “Yeah, me either,” Robert added. “But the Royals don’t know how most of the base works anymore. Unfortunately, that knowledge has been lost overtime.”

  “Then I need to do a little exploring,” Aleena told them.

  Valaan, ever the voice of reason, spoke up. “We can discuss this on the way. The Urlowens will be back soon, and in greater numbers.”

  “We have to get rid of this place,” Norman said, motioning all around.

  “Isn’t there a self-destruct button or something?” Rayland asked.

  Robert rolled his eyes. “No.”

  “Then let’s make our own,” Norman suggested. “Robert, grab the charges. If we place them all around the house, she can trigger them with a well-placed missile.” He looked at Aleena. “That thing does have missiles, right?”

  “I’ve got four left,” she said.

  “But what if we run into trouble on the way?” Robert asked.

  “We’ll just have to deal with that if it happens,” Norman answered.

  Robert looked a little uneasy as he put his arm around his wife.

  “It’ll be all right,” Valaan assured.

  Robert nodded. “All right. Everyone get on board. Norm and I will place the charges.”

  “Um,” Ethan began, “where is everyone going to sit? The cabin doesn’t have any seating.”

  “Oh, right,” Aleena said. “I’ll take care of that.” She turned and made her way into the cockpit.

  Ethan followed her up the ladder and leaned into the fuselage to see what she was up to.

  She sat in the pilot’s chair and swiveled around to face the cabin, then closed her eyes and keyed something into the armrest.

  The cabin floor shifted, and the metal rose, forming two long benches running on either side of the mid cabin.

  Ethan shook his head. How did they lose the war? There was so much that didn’t make sense about that.

  “How about that?” Aleena asked.

  Ethan chuckled. “Honestly, doesn’t look all that comfortable.”

  “Then bring some pillows.”

  Everyone piled onto the benches, which came complete with safety straps. Ethan made sure to sit on the end closest to Aleena and Valaan. Allison sat across from him next to Conner, which made Ethan feel a bit uneasy for some reason.

  Finally, Robert and Norman returned and sat next to their wives.

  “We’re good to go,” Norman said.

  “Then let’s get on our way,” Aleena announced, spinning her seat to the front.

  Ethan felt the ship rock as the landing struts left the solid earth. His eyes roamed the back of the pilot’s seat, watching Aleena’s right arm controlling the stick.

  The ship rolled to the left, turning back toward the safe house. He heard the swish and thrum of hydraulics and gears moving as Aleena armed one of the missiles. Then, with a deafening roar, it left its internal rack and careened toward the house below.

  Ethan saw the sky light up through the windscreen when the missile hit its target. The ship rolled once again as Aleena made a pass over the rubble. She glanced back. “Looks like that did the trick.”

  “Good,” Norman called up to the front.

  “We’ll have to stay low and slow to avoid their sensor sweeps. Valaan, do you think you can help?” Aleena asked.

  Valaan, who was sitting in the seat just behind and to the side of Aleena, nodded. “I’ll do my best.” The Elf placed both hands on his knees, closed his eyes, and appeared to enter some sort of deep trancelike contemplation.

  “What is he doing?” Ethan whispered to Aleena. He didn’t want to disturb whatever Valaan was trying to accomplish.

  Aleena swiveled her chair around to face him. “He’s trying to conceal our signature.”

  “He can do that?”

  She looked at Valaan. “I hope so.”

  “Cool,” he replied, a bit nervous. It wasn’t exactly an inspirational response.

  CHAPTER 14

  In the distance, a quaint little village came into view. Aleena glanced back at Valaan, who had beads of sweat rolling down his forehead. She was worried about him. He’d been in the trance for hours, keeping the ship hidden from both sensor sweeps and prying eyes looking up into the sky.

  “We’re almost there,” she announced. “I can see the town.” She was flying low through the Alps, well under the snowy mountain peaks. According to her instruments, the base should’ve been a mile north of the village, which was nestled in a snowy plain just between two mountain ridges, but all she saw ahead were the looming peaks.

  “Why can’t we see it?” Aleena called back.

  “There’s a cloak,” Norman answered. “It’s part of the energy barrier.”

  Aleena shook her head, “I’ve never heard of a cloaked energy barrier. Invisibility is always dependent on magic, and that wouldn’t last this long.”

  She could hear Norman’s breathing behind her. He’d come up to the cockpit. “It was experimental. The whole thing was classified. That’s probably why you didn’t know about it. Just like your hibernation chamber wasn’t in our records.”

  It made sense, she had to admit. The hibernation chamber was classified at the highest levels. The more people who knew of its existence, the better the chances the Urlowens would have the opportunity to find it. The same would have been true for this place and its technology.

  “There,” Norman said, pointing out the window. “Set us down behind that barn on the outskirts of town.”

  “But if the base is up ahead—”

  “We don’t want to surprise the Royals. It’ll be best if we come in on foot.”

  “They should already know we’re here,” Aleena said. “The base’s flight center will have picked up the ships transponder.”

  “Even so, I’ll bet no one knows what that means or what to even look for. A ship like this hasn’t flown here in a few thousand years.”

  “Very well. We’ll need to cover the ship with something once we land. Valaan won’t be able to keep it hidden.”

  “I know the owner of that place,” Norman told her. “He’ll let us put the ship in the barn.”

  Aleena entered the landing coordinates and set the ship to autopilot. After a few moments, they were firmly on the ground.

  “Let me go talk to my friend,” Norman said. “Then I’ll come open the barn, and you can move the ship inside.”

  Aleena opened the cockpit door and a gust of blistering cold wind poured into the craft. She shivered and closed the door as soon as Norman was clear.

  A few minutes later, Norman came around the corner of the old wooden slat barn along with a hefty, gray-haired old man who seemed to match the dilapidated barn quite well.

  Aleena reached into herself to draw warmth from her magic. She hated being cold and wasn’t about to be caught off guard by another gust of that wind. Once prepared, she had the ship open the door.

  The old man looked like he nearly had a heart attack. Then Aleena realized what it must’ve looked like from the outside, a floating open doorway leading into an invisible room right outside his barn.

  “We’ll open the barn doors,” Norman called up from outside.

  “Stand back when you’re done,” Aleena instructed.


  The old man unlocked the doors and raised the large latch. Each man grabbed one of the large wooden slats and pushed the sliding doors apart with quite the effort. Once they were open, Norman stood back and motioned for the man to do the same.

  Aleena activated the ship’s landing struts and pulled from her magic to produce skis where the struts once touched the ground. Then she slowly moved the ship over the snow to the barn, the top of the craft barely fitting through the opening. As the skis hit the barn’s dirt floor, Aleena turned them into semitranslucent wheels that appeared like white energy swirling around the strut.

  Once the ship was entirely inside, she released her magic and began the shutdown sequence. Everyone had exited the craft by the time the pilot’s chair released the fused restraints from her armor and she stood.

  It felt so good to stand. She stretched, reaching all the way down to her toes, placing her palms on the metal floorboard, and lunging in each direction, loosening her legs. Feeling a bit better, she climbed down the stairs to join the others. When she turned around, she found the old man staring at her, Valaan, and the ship, which was now visible, mouth agape.

  “I wouldn’ta thought it possible,” he said, then looked over to Norman. “I woulda said you was crazy if ya hadn’t been my own son.”

  “Thanks, Pops,” Norman responded, clearly annoyed. “Everyone, this is my father, Louis.”

  “Pleased to meet you,” Valaan replied. “How close are the Urlowens to this town?”

  “Oh don’t you worry,” the old man said. “We’ve been safe here so far. This village is too small for them nasty sons of—”

  “Grandpa!” Meghan interjected.

  “Oh, right. Sorry, sweetie. Anyway, their hands have been tied up with the world’s bigger cities, I reckon. When the time comes, we’ll all hole up in the Arc, I suppose. Just like….” The old man looked Aleena up down. “Just like your friends, I suppose.”

  “We intend to fight,” Ethan said.

  The old man scrunched a wrinkled nose. “I don’t think you’ll find a lot of agreement with that here.”

  “You won’t be able to hide forever,” Valaan said.

  The man shrugged. “It doesn’t matter one way ter the other for me. I’m certainly not in fightin’ condition.”