by E. R. Torre
She felt the hair on her arms stand as powerful electric currents ran through the place. There were strange sounds and mysterious flashes of light. They came from elsewhere.
“How are you?”
She looked to her right and found a doctor standing beside her cot. The doctor was dressed in white and carried a clipboard.
“Whe… where am I?” Catherine managed.
“Safe,” the doctor said, though a nervousness in her voice suggested otherwise.
“What’s going on, Doctor…?”
“Pardon my manners, my name is Paeon,” she said. “Rest, Catherine.”
“Wait!” Catherine Holland said. “Where am I? What happened at the hospital? Where… where’s Nox?”
“What do you remember?”
“Someone blew my place up and… I saw Nox at the hospital. Is she here?”
“I’m afraid not.”
“She was by my side. She held… she held a bomb. She disarmed it?”
“She did,” Doctor Paeon said. “She saved your life and the lives of many others. Had the device exploded…”
“Who… who would do this? Were they after me?” Catherine Holland shook her head. “No. They were after her, weren’t they?”
“Most likely. She is an Independent.”
“Mechanic.”
“There’s a difference?”
“Yeah. She goes by that title and not the other. You haven’t told me where she is.”
“It’s because I don’t know,” Doctor Paean said.
“Get me someone who does,” Catherine demanded.
“Ms. Holland, it might be better if you…”
A mountain of a man approached them. He stood over six feet five inches and was covered in muscle.
“Doctor, I’m sure you’re needed elsewhere,” he said. “Perhaps I could talk to Ms. Holland?”
“Certainly,” Doctor Paeon said. “You guys are in charge anyway.”
With that, Doctor Paeon moved away.
“Who are you?” Catherine asked.
“The name’s Lionel Delmont,” the man said.
“You’re military?”
“Yeah. Sergeant.”
“Alright, Sergeant Delmont, what in Hades is going on?”
“It’s a long story,” he said. “Our commander, General Paul Spradlin, is with Nox at this moment. They’re fighting against what remains of the Arabian War’s child soldiers.”
“Didn’t they… didn’t they all die? All but Nox?”
Delmont was surprised by Catherine’s question.
“You knew she was one of them?” he asked before shaking his head. “Of course you do. The answer to your question is: No, not all the child soldiers died during the Arabian War. Unfortunately, a few remain.”
Sergeant Delmont grabbed a chair and sat down next to Catherine.
“You and Nox are…?”
“Together,” Catherine Holland said.
“Ah.”
“I was over there, too. In Arabia.”
“Intel Ops,” Delmont said. “You were part of the Gennies, stationed near Parata. There were twelve of you there and your focus was on transmissions originating from, or going to, the south east coast. High level stuff.”
“How did you…?”
“I noticed your tattoo.”
Catherine involuntarily looked at the faded tattoo, the image of a pair of dice, one coming up six the other two, on the upper half of her right arm. Six by Two was code for Intel Op personnel. That was known. What few knew was where she was stationed and what she was doing in Arabia. The man before her knew details few outside of the upper echelons of the military knew.
“You also know what Nox carries inside her?”
“The nano-probes?” Catherine said. “She told me it was part of a medical experiment. Tiny machines injected into her and designed to stitch up injuries.”
“They’re much more than that,” Sergeant Delmont said.
“She suspected as much,” Catherine Holland said. “Who are these other child soldiers?”
“They’re the ones that didn’t make it to the front lines. There were many reasons they didn’t. Most of them bad.”
“Where have they been all this time?”
Sergeant Delmont didn’t answer right away and Catherine Holland understood.
“You’ve kept them imprisoned.”
“I told you what I knew of your position in Arabia not to brag or impress you, but to prove I was there too. I dealt with much of what you dealt with. I tell you this because what I’m about to say…”
Sergeant Delmont shook his head.
“The other child soldiers, the ones that didn’t make it to Arabia, were a danger to society. They were treated as humanely as possible but, yes, they were locked up.”
“And now they’re out,” Catherine Holland said. She gripped the bedsheets and fought off a fresh wave of dizziness. “What is this about? What are you doing with Nox? What does this have to do with me?”
“What I’m about to say will no doubt shock you, Ms. Holland. It will cloud your view of me and… and those I work for. You’ll think us villains. Evil. We are neither. We are trying to save humanity and I need you to know and understand this.”
“Why?”
“Because we’ve done the best we could given nothing but terrible choices. One of the terrible things we did was create, use, and ultimately sacrifice the lives of the child soldiers in Arabia. My commander was the… he was the man behind the child soldier project. He was the one who ordered them to carry nukes into the Arabian cities nearly two decades ago. He had them guard the nukes until the moment they were deployed.”
“And Nox…?”
“She was not supposed to survive,” Sergeant Delmont said. “The nano-probes in her system not only kept her fit and healed her when injured, they ordered her into the city of Sada-bir. She, along with three other child soldiers, were supposed to remain there and set those bombs off.”
“By the Gods, why would you do this?”
“Because we were trying to save humanity and the only way to do this is by destroying this world.”
Catherine Holland tried to understand the words coming from Sergeant Delmont’s mouth. It was impossible.
“At what point am I supposed to think of you and your group as anything other than villains, Sergeant?” she asked.
20
Catherine Holland fought off a fresh wave of dizziness and said:
“What is your commander doing with Nox?”
“Nothing she didn’t readily agree to,” Delmont said.
“Unlike back in Arabia?” Catherine shot back. “I suppose killing nearly a billion people—
“Only the child soldiers died during the Arabian War, Ms. Holland. All but Nox. Everyone else, every single person in every single city, survived.”
“Really?” Catherine Holland said. “What did you do, snap your fingers and make them disappear?”
A smile appeared on Sergeant Delmont’s face.
“You don’t know how close to the truth you are,” he said. “Years before the Arabian War we inserted a modified version of those nano-probes into their drinking water. They were programmed to do two things: Transport the people of Arabia elsewhere and, afterwards, absorb all radiation the transportation caused.”
“Radiation? Transport? What do you mean? Did you use a fleet of leaking atomic powered buses to get the people out of there?”
“The technology used to transport them is something far more sophisticated than anything the general public knows about. We call it a Displacer and it moves people and objects distances as many as several light years away.”
“Light…? What in Hades are you talking about?”
“In layman’s terms, a Displacer creates a short-cut between points in space. Any space. You have a Displacer at one point and another Displacer linked to it at another point. When connected and activated, the two create what we call an interdimensional corridor. You enter the
first Displacer’s interdimensional corridor and in as little as a few seconds emerge through the second Displacer’s corridor.”
“The first Displacer is here?”
“Displacers,” Sergeant Delmont said. “They’re scattered throughout the Megacities of Earth. They’re taking everyone out of here and sending them to destination Displacers and safety.”
“Where are those destinations?”
“Three starships, which we’ve called the Arks. The entire population of Arabia, right this moment, is on one of those vessels.”
Catherine Holland was dead silent for several seconds. She expected Sergeant Delmont to crack a smile, to let out a laugh. There was no trace of mirth on his face. None at all.
“You’re not kidding, are you?” she said.
“No.”
“Why were they sent there?”
“Because our world is about to be overrun by the aliens we stole the Displacer technology from. They intend to feed off our planet as they’ve done many others since the beginning of time. It is not only our intention to escape from them, but we also plan to kill them.”
“How?”
“By stripping Earth of all its nourishment and poisoning her soil and oceans. We’ll starve those bastards to death.”
“You expect me to—”
Sergeant Delmont reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small tablet computer. He activated it.
“These images are live,” he said. “They’re showing what’s happening twelve floors below us.”
On the screen was a large crowd of people led by a group of soldiers into a metallic room. Once everyone was crowded into the room, the door leading out was closed and sealed and a strange hiss was heard.
Several people in the group began panicking but the hiss, tranquilizer gas, calmed them.
The lights dimmed. There was a distant rumbling and Catherine felt the hairs on her arm stand.
“You feel it, don’t you?” Delmont said.
Seconds later the lights brightened and the door leading into the room opened. The soldiers standing next to that door motioned for the people to vacate the area. Everyone did as told.
What they found outside the room wasn’t the musty concrete bunker they were corralled in from. Instead, they were in what appeared to be an incredibly large hanger and within it were thousands, perhaps even several hundred thousands, of people. The people milled about, still under the influence of the tranquilizer, and barely reacted to the strange place they were in.
“They think they’re in another part of this bunker,” Sergeant Delmont said. “They’re not.”
He pressed the tablet’s screen and the image on it switched to a feed from another camera. It displayed another room somewhere above these people. Officers worked on their computers and made certain all was well. The camera panned away from them and toward a distant window. Beyond that window was the darkness of outer space. The camera angle shifted and the image on the tablet was now of that window but viewed from the outside. The camera drew further back, further and further still, until Catherine let out a gasp.
As Sergeant Delmont said, the people in the bunker were in a massive starship. Beyond that starship was another. Farther in the distance was a third.
“By the Gods,” Catherine Holland said.
“In ancient times there were tales of a great cleansing of Earth,” Sergeant Delmont said. “Noah and the flood. Gilgamesh. These ancient tales are coming true. Here. Now. And you’re about to experience it.”
Several people in the beds around Catherine Holland were placed in wheelchairs or gurneys and taken away. In the short time they talked, she realized few were left on her floor.
“You’re not telling anyone else about this, are you?” Catherine Holland asked.
“No,” Sergeant Delmont said. “We don’t want to cause panic.”
“Why tell me?”
“Two reasons. The first is because we’re just about finished transporting everyone.”
“And the second?”
“Nox,” Sergeant Delmont said. “As I said before, my commanding officer left with her to deal with the child soldiers. They’re running on an old program, one that believes the Arabian War is still going on. They’re threatening our plans to save humanity and my commander is keeping them away from here and places like it. He… he doesn’t think he’ll survive this particular fight.”
“And Nox?”
“She might survive but even if she does…”
“What?” Catherine said.
“The nano-probes inside her are very similar to those inside my commander. They are much more sophisticated and very much like those which came from the alien invaders. He fears these nano-probes can be taken over by the aliens or used as a beacon by the aliens to track us –and the arks– down. Because of this, Nox and my commander cannot leave Earth.”
Sergeant Delmont pointed to the tablet.
“The reason I’m here, Catherine, is so that you can say goodbye to Nox. Use the tablet. Record a message for her. I know it isn’t much, but given what you two have gone through, my commander wanted you to have a chance to say goodbye.”
Catherine Holland eyed the tablet. She shook her head. The weight of the information given to her, the realization that this was all true and that in a very short period of time she would not only leave Earth, but Nox, crashed in her mind.
Tears ran down her face. She took the tablet from Delmont’s hand.
“Give me a moment,” she said.
Sergeant Delmont nodded and got to his feet.
“When you need me, just wave,” he said and walked away. He stood a polite distance from her and turned his back.
Catherine thought hard for several seconds. Finally, she pressed the tablet’s screen and activated its recorder. Her face was reflected on the tablet’s screen.
“Hello, Nox,” she said. On the tablet’s screen, she saw herself. Bandages covered her head and her right eye was a swollen mess. She tried to say something but, for the moment, couldn’t. She shook her head and wiped the tears away. “I hope… I hope you’re doing well. They were… they were kind enough to let me make this message for you. There’s so much I want to tell you. So much…”
21
Catherine Holland awoke to sharp pains. Hands grabbed and lifted her. For a moment, she felt panic.
“Sorry,” a voice said.
Catherine Holland realized the hands belonged to orderlies. They were in the process of moving her from the bed and into a wheelchair.
“We tried to wake you but you were in such a deep—”
“How long…?”
“You were out two days.”
“Careful,” a voice spoke from her side.
It was Sergeant Delmont. The orderlies covered Catherine Holland’s body with a blanket.
“How are you doing?” Sergeant Delmont asked.
Catherine Holland looked for the tablet he gave her but realized it was gone.
“Did you get my message to Nox?”
“It was sent out,” Sergeant Delmont said. His jaw tightened. “If… if she survives the next few hours, she will get it.”
“Thank you.”
The orderlies moved to other patients and Sergeant Delmont gripped the wheelchair’s handles. Catherine was surprised by how empty this section of the bunker was. The voices she heard coming from the room and the corridors beyond were gone and a deep silence settled over the place.
“Is it time?” Catherine asked.
“Yes,” Sergeant Delmont said. “You’re part of the very last group.”
“You must have more important things to do than wheel me around?”
“Everything I had to do is done,” Sergeant Delmont said.
“Will the trip… will the trip hurt?”
“It might, a little. Nausea. A headache. Small time stuff for someone who survived a Malakov.”
Sergeant Delmont hurried along the near empty corridors. In the distance was Doctor Paeon.
“Initiation is in fifteen minutes,” the Doctor said.
They waited by a pair of metal doors leading into a massive room while others were brought in. Catherine, Sergeant Delmont, and Doctor Paeon watched as the last patients arrived.
Most were either in wheelchairs or stretchers and truly no one was to be left behind. No one but Nox.
Doctor Paeon checked her computer tablet.
“Everyone’s accounted for,” she said.
Sergeant Delmont double checked her data.
“Verified,” he said. “This place is evacuated.”
He leaned down to face Catherine.
“Take care,” he told her.
“You’re not coming?”
“Not on this trip,” Delmont said.
He straightened up and laid his right hand over a computer panel embedded in the concrete wall. Once his identity was verified, Sergeant Delmont pressed a series of buttons. A one hour countdown began.
“An hour?” Catherine asked. “What’s that for?”
“Once you’re gone, this place –and all the others like it– goes up. No one follows.”
He took one last look at the group and stepped out.
The metallic doors sealed shut behind him.
As soon as they did, the lights within the room dimmed.
The crowd grew very quiet as distant machines came to life. The crackle of electricity grew louder and the lights brightened. The floor under the room rumbled.
And then, it all stopped.
“What…?” Doctor Paeon said.
The locks on the doors leading into the Displacer chamber loudly clicked and opened.
Sergeant Delmont quickly re-entered the chamber and returned to the computer panel. He pressed a series of buttons and read the information on it. When he was done, his jaw tightened.
“We have an anomaly,” he told Doctor Paeon. “Someone here carries active nano-particles. The Displacer won’t take this group until that person is removed.”
“Who is—?” Doctor Paeon began and stopped. She looked at Catherine Holland. “Her?”
“Nox and she were lovers. I suppose it was inevitable they shared nano-probes.”