Collector Ship

by Adam Moon

  David assumed she was looking for something within the drone that might lead them to the collector aliens. Whatever she was looking for was not there. She pointed at the drone and shook her head. Then she used her hands to show a shape. It looked like she’d caught an invisible soccer ball. It took them a minute to figure out that she was referring to one of the orbs. Her hands made a circular motion and they were the right distance apart to indicate an orb. When comprehension lit up their faces she nodded. She wanted to get her hands on one of the orbs.

  Not for the first time David wished that the cable that connected their minds wasn’t anchored to the ship. It sure would’ve come in handy a few times already, if only to avoid pantomiming every thought to each other.

  She started to rush towards the cave opening in the rock face when they felt a vibration beneath their feet. At first they didn’t know what was happening but after several reverberations and dull booms, they figured it out. The rocky cavern beneath them was being caved in by explosives.

  Dust billowed out through the cave entrance. Some sort of self-destruct protocol had been initiated once their presence became a threat. That could mean only one thing: they were close. But they weren’t close enough. The orbs would be flattened like pancakes by the time hundreds of tons of rock fell on them.

  Number One threw caution to the wind and rushed inside the dusty cave. David tried to stop her but she was too fast. They continued to hear charges going off within the cave system and beneath their feet.

  Stacey looked at David and then back in the direction of the ship. He knew exactly what she was thinking: Number One wasn’t going to make it and then they’d have to try and get back to the collector ship in one piece. But that wasn’t the scary part. If they miraculously made it back alive, they had to find a way to fly the ship back to Earth. It was an impossible undertaking. Even if the collectors gave them all the time in the world to figure the ship out, it could take several lifetimes to fathom it. And the collectors were probably sending missiles or troops their way already so the notion that time was on their side was a fallacy.

  Stacey sighed. “We should have stayed home. Now the collectors will figure out that we tampered with their mission much sooner.”

  She wasn’t wrong about that. If they’d stayed on Earth then the collectors wouldn’t have figured out what they’d done to skew the mission of the collector ship for another century. They could have beefed up defenses in a hundred years and been ready for them. They could have reverse engineered the ship in that time and used its technology to tip the scales in their favor. But now they’d showed themselves to the enemy. Now they lost the element of surprise. David could have kicked himself for being so short sighted. Number One seemed like she knew what she was doing so he blindly followed her into unknown terrain. This planet would be their coffin.

  Just as his despondency bottomed out, Number One ran towards them with an orb clutched in her bloody hands. A second after she cleared the cave entrance it collapsed behind her.

  Stacey whooped with joy and hugged David. “She did it. We still have a shot at this.”

  His elation hit him by surprise and he fell against his sister. All was not lost.

  They watched as Number One placed the orb on the ground and pried a clear lens from it. She reached her fingers into the opening and pulled the orb in half, dumping its alien components at her feet. She plucked out a tiny wire that was as nondescript as any wire they’d ever seen but the sight of it elated her. She held it out in her shaky hand and then pulled a boxy device from her waistband. She ran the device along the wire’s length and then all around it. When she was done she stared at the readout it supplied. She looked up at the sky and then smiled back at them. Then she patted them both on the head and took off running towards the ship. It was an utter anticlimax but they were glad for that. No one had died during the mission. Stacey scooped up the discarded components in her arms and David asked, “What are you doing?”

  “If we get back home, we can give this over to reverse engineer.”

  “What if it’s worthless?”

  “I doubt that. Anyway, I made my mind up already. Let’s go.”

  He helped her carry it since she couldn’t be dissuaded and they ran as fast as they could to keep up with Number One.

  The race back through the forest didn’t become difficult until they closed in on the ship. There was a battle like nothing any of them had seen before as aggressive, scared aliens attempted to take the ship from Gordon and Olaf.

  Luckily Number One didn’t hesitate to join in the fray. She grabbed the head of a dark, burly alien and, with her forward momentum, brought its face down hard into the ground. She fired into the back of its head while surveying the battleground at the same time.

  The door to the ship was wide open with Gordon and Olaf firing out from within.

  David fired at a small creature that tried to ambush them from above and Stacey fumbled and accidentally dropped her gun. She yelled, “Damn it!” All the training in the world hadn’t prepared her for such a bizarre massacre. She retrieved the gun and made up for her clumsiness by killing two aliens in rapid succession.

  Something long and sharp, like a spear flew past them, barely missing. When David traced it back to its source he saw an alien standing there with an appendage missing and bleeding liberally. He stared in wide eyed wonder as it partially detached another limb. When the limb was held on by just tendons, it quickly spun around like a top. He heard a pop and the limb flew right at him. Only his thoughts were quicker than that limb. He knew instantly that he was going to be skewered alive and there was no way to avoid it.

  Number One saved his life by snatching the flying limb out of the air. In one deft motion she swung around and hurled it back at his assailant. It pierced the creature and it screamed right before scurrying away into the forest.

  David tried to thank her but she had already moved on.

  He fired at a group of aliens perched atop the collector ship, forcing them to flee. And then out of the corner of his eye he saw Olaf fall face first out of the ship’s doorway, clearly dead.

  Stacey saw it too which ignited a fury within her like David had never seen before. She rushed to Olaf, firing from the hip at any alien foolish enough to get in her way. By the time she was done there were no more aggressive aliens left to fight. The badasses were dead and the cowards were running for their lives. But none of that mattered because Olaf was beyond help. The top of his head had been caved in, probably by the aliens perched on top of the ship that David had fired at. Olaf had taken his last breath, the only human to die on an alien world.

  Number One helped drag his lifeless body inside and then she shut the door and quickly jumped the ship into orbit, to safeguard it from further attacks.

  This time they all breathed a sigh of relief to see the black of space on the holographic monitor.

  She plugged in so David stole himself from the group and plugged in too.

  One: I’m sorry for your friend.

  David: He died saving Earth. It’s a noble way to go out.

  One: I see. I scanned the signal from the floating camera orb. I have a target. I just need to see these collector aliens for myself before I call in a strike.

  David: Okay. We’re with you. Just tell us what to do.

  One: I no longer need you. To take you with me would be to put you in danger. I will drop you off on your planet and then take care of the collectors.

  David: Are you sure? We can help you. We’re all highly trained.

  One: Are you trained in space warfare? Are you prepared to infiltrate an alien planet and obliterate its apex species?

  David: I suppose not.

  One: Again, I’m sorry for your loss.

  David: Thank you. It was a pleasure working with you.

  One: You too.

  Sometime later David noticed Stacey showing Number One the destroyed orb. She was moving her arms and pointing, trying to relay her point but Number One
seemed confused. David could have helped but he was beyond exhausted.

  Home

  Under David’s direction, Number One jumped them into Earth Atmosphere. If humans screwed this all up by blowing the ship out of the sky David would personally wipe out his own species for their stupidity. Because he anticipated just such an attack he ordered the ship to appear in southern Illinois, far enough away to avoid potential missile strikes and close to where he thought Murphy had set up camp.

  She landed and they carried Olaf out. David hooked up the cable one last time.

  David: Thank you for everything. Good luck.

  One: I will be in touch. Thank you too.

  They watched the ship rise a foot above the ground and then vanish before their eyes.

  Stacey radioed Murphy and told him they’d been successful.

  Murphy yelled back, “You idiots can’t do that to me again. I’m your father for God’s sake. I thought I’d lost you forever.”

  Stacey said, “We got very lucky but Olaf didn’t make it.”

  “Olaf’s dead? How? What happened to you guys out there?”

  “I’ll tell you everything when we get back to base.”

  “I just sent a ride to pick you up. Gunner and Felix were finally able to take out number three. Other than that, we’re still crawling with aliens.”

  “Well, we’re here to help with that. See you soon.”

  He sent a chopper to pick them up a mile east of their position just in case the military noticed the collector ship had returned and came looking for it too aggressively. The last thing any of them wanted was to have to defend themselves from their own people.

  While they headed east to rendezvous with the chopper, David wondered what Number One’s people would make of her outlandish story. Maybe they were so used to interactions with alien creatures that it wouldn’t sound that strange to them. He’d hate for her to get the same treatment that human hillbillies got every time they claimed abduction by aliens in the past.

  Murphy radioed again, clearly excited at their return. “I just got off the horn with Commander Henshaw. I explained the entire situation. He’s pissed that the ship’s gone but he still needs us to help take out the remaining alien escapees so he’s being cooperative. He wants a full report as soon as you’re ready.”

  Stacey said, “I can fly out to him as soon as we check in with you. We lost the ship but I brought back a piece of tech he might be interested in.”

  Murphy wanted to ask what she meant but he held his tongue for the moment. “David, do you feel like joining your sister?”

  “Only if Gunner agrees to join us.”

  “I’m sure she will. I’ll consider it a paid vacation before you come back to us full time.”

  “I still haven’t decided that’s what I want to do but I appreciate the offer.”

  “It’s an open invitation, son. You know how important you are to me. I just want to see more of you in the future.”

  “You will, dad.”

  Murphy went silent.

  Stacey said, “The chopper’s here. See you soon.”

  In Orbit of the Collector Home Planet

  Admiral Kalo received a hail from ground control. He brought it up on his ship’s monitor. It was Fetet, the liaison between the military and the gaming committee. If Fetet wanted an audience that meant something had gone horribly wrong on the alien battle planet.

  Kalo snarled. “What happened this time?”

  “We were attacked by an alien force that somehow used one of our own ships to infiltrate us.”

  “That’s impossible.”

  “I can’t explain it. They used the same ship to escape.”

  “Aren’t the ships designed to self-destruct upon landing?”

  “They must have figured out how to get around that. They took a viewer orb before we could destroy the operation.”

  “What’s the importance of the orb?”

  “It sends signals back here. They could have potentially traced the signal to us. They escaped before we could stop them.”

  “Do you think they’ll come for us?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t even know who they were or where they came from.”

  “Give me all the information you have and I’ll track them back to their home world. Don’t worry, Fetet, I’ll have this handled by the end of the day.”

  “What will you do?”

  “They interfered with your operations. You know how important the games are. Without the battle planet our people would bore and take their aggression out on themselves. And without being able to witness the capabilities of the aliens we collect, we wouldn’t know which ones are threats that require eradication. If your mission has been jeopardized, I will wipe out the perpetrators.”

  “Thank you.” He paused as he looked over the information in front of him. “We know the ship that brought them but it has probably visited dozens of planets since we launched it. It could take you awhile to investigate each planet before you find the culprits.”

  “If you authorize it, I can simply wipe out each one of them, just to be safe.”

  “That might be prudent. However, I just received a report that the viewing orb has been reactivated.”

  “Where was it turned back on?”

  “In the third quadrant. We’re still trying to get an exact location.”

  “Can you see what the orb sees?”

  “It’s hazy. I think the lens was removed before they took it so the picture is murky. I’ll send you the feed and you can take a look for yourself. Hold on.”

  An image appeared in place of Fetet. It showed two creatures that Kalo vaguely recognized. They were humans. If humans had somehow jeopardized the games then they had been grossly underestimated. Their preliminary probes indicated that humans were no threat whatsoever.

  The humans were chattering but not to each other; they were speaking directly into the orb. Kalo turned on his ship’s translator and listened. The humans were saying, “This is Stacey and David Cole. Thanks for the technology, you stupid bastards. Burn in hell. Over and out.”

  A different female human came into view and put her arm around the male. They walked away and the image fluttered before shutting off completely.

  Fetet came back. “We have a lock. I’m sending you the coordinates.”

  “I already know where they are. They’re humans. How the hell did humans manage to sabotage the games?”

  Fetet didn’t answer. Then his face darkened with fear. He looked away from the screen and stammered. “Something’s wrong. What’s going on up there?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re surrounded by hundreds of unidentified ships. Do you see them?”

  Kalo was about to tell Fetet that he was a fool, when the proximity siren began to blare. He pulled up the view of the outside of the ship and nearly jumped out of his chair. The void was now full of hundreds of alien ships. He didn’t recognize them but he knew warships when he saw them.

  He was screwed and so were his people. There was no way they could withstand an attack by such a vast armada.

  He made a snap decision, knowing they were about to be obliterated. He’d send the remaining collector ships - that were in transit to the battle planet - to Earth to teach those humans a lesson. If his people were doomed, he’d make sure the Earthlings were too. There was no way they’d survive one ship after another offloading the most aggressive aliens in the galaxy over the course of the next several hundred years. He rerouted them all right before the alien armada sprung into action.

  His last thought before his ship was blown to pieces was: I knew the games would lead to our demise.

  Before his people on the ground could counter, the armada wiped them out too.

  The Newest Teammate

  Stacey had helped the military scientists put the orb together with the wire she’d gotten from Number One for one reason only: to mock the collectors. It was childish but after everything they’d just been thr
ough it was cathartic. Better yet, it made the orb fully functional which was more than could be said for any of the other alien tech the military had confiscated so far.

  David felt Gunner put her arm around him. He was done with the orb anyway so he walked away with her. Buddy wagged his tail as he chased after them.

  David had no idea if the collectors would ever get their message but he hoped that by the time it reached them they’d be long dead. The fact that he didn’t even know what they looked like didn’t matter; he hated them fiercely for how they treated alien life in the galaxy.

  Henshaw tried to make a play to quarantine them but Murphy wouldn’t stand for it, saying, “There are still at least a dozen dangerous aliens out there. My people are more than capable of taking them out and your people have proven themselves to be outmatched. If you hold them, I will see to it that you are punished severely.”

  Because Henshaw couldn’t tell if it was a bluff or not, he relented. He was already on thin ice for letting the collector ship slip from his grasp so he was playing it as safe as possible. When the team arrive ed with the orb he nearly kissed them. That orb probably saved his career.

  They were about to walk out of the underground military cavern where the collector ship had once been stored when the lights flickered and someone at the back of the room screamed. A loud boom shook the rock walls like a thunderclap.

  They turned and saw two ships there that hadn’t been there seconds earlier. One was the collector ship and the other was a smaller, far more alien craft.

  Henshaw cut through the panic when he ordered his men to be ready but David, Stacey, and Gunner walked forward, blocking his soldier’s line of sight.